Hodler produced several landscapes of the countryside at the foot of the Salève in 1888. The composition is daring in the way it combines a close-up of the delicately coloured meadow flowers in the foreground with the limestone outcrops of the Salève beyond. The viewer encounters the flowers as if he himself at ground level lying in the grass. The way Hodler frames the composition, cutting off the bottom of the flowers’ stems, gives a heightened sense of immediacy. The pale pink and blue-violet scabius flowers are interspersed with grasses and the way they are painted impressionistic. Rather than limiting himself to a faithful representation of nature, Hodler wanted his landscapes to evoke emotions in the viewer. He said : “Painting can only represent sensations, and these must be strong and pure unadulterated, in order to be transmitted from the surface to the viewer through form and colour.“ As a dedication in his hand on the reverse of the canvas attests, Hodler gave this picture to his sister-in-law Jeanne-Louise Jacques.