Valentine Godé-Darel one day before her death

Hodler dated this canvas exactly, the 24th of January 1915, in Vevey on Lake Geneva. His companion Valentine Godé-Darel had been dying of cancer for two years, and he had painted her all the way through it. She died the next morning, on the 25th. Here her mouth has fallen open to gasp for breath, deep lines are cut into her face, and behind her there is only a bare pale wall. He watched and recorded the whole decline with a steadiness that unsettled people at the time, more than 20 drawings and paintings in all. The date he wrote on this one is the day before the end.