Enchanted Boy, 1909

About the Work

This painting by the Swiss artist Ferdinand Hodler shows his six-year-old son Hector. The boy is dressed in white shorts and a vest and is standing barefoot before a landscape with flowers in the background. His pose and the slightly open arms recall a classical attitude of prayer as well as the immersion of an innocent child in the purity of nature. The gesture of the open arms can also be seen as a sign of the dawning of awareness and the child's first steps into the world of the intellect and spirit.