![In Ida Hoff’s interpretation, Ferdinand Hodler’s painting “The Day” depicts “the varying attitudes of women to the issue of women’s rights”. Ferdinand Hodler, “The Day”, 1899-1900 (detail).](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/hodler-der-tag-titel-300x225.jpg)
Physician Ida Hoff’s feminist interpretation of Hodler
Born in Russia, Ida Hoff became one of the first women to attend university in Switzerland around 1900. In addition to pursuing a career in medicine, she was a staunch advocate of women’s rights, guided by her feminist conscience and a penchant for irreverence. She found an outlet for the latter at the second Swiss Congress for Women's Interests in 1921, where she wittily subjected Ferdinand Hodler’s painting “The Day” to a fresh new feminist interpretation.
![The confident, feminist Female Students' Association in Bern 1903 at the opening of the new university building. Ida Hoff is standing at the very left of the back row.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/studentinnenverein-bern-ida-hoff-300x194.jpg)
![Ida Hoff at the age of 25, 1905.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/ida-hoff-passfoto-207x300.jpg)
![Anna Tumarkin](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/anna-tumarkin-217x300.jpg)
![Ferdinand Hodler, “The Day”, 1899-1900](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/hodler-der-tag-bern-300x137.jpg)