Ferdinand Hodler	
Swiss, 1853­1918
James Vibert, Sculptor
1907
Oil on canvas
65.4 x 66.4 cm
Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection, 1926.212

Hodler, a Swiss artist, painted nine portraits of his close friend James Vibert, a sculptor who had studied with the famous French sculptor Auguste Rodin. 

With his square-cut red beard and blue eyes, Vibert cuts a striking figure against the pale yellow background. The line from nose to mouth and chin and down through the shirt divides the portrait vertically into two nearly identical halves. This rigid symmetry organizes the painting. What kind of a person do you think Vibert was?