In 1917, the year Mountain, Bird was created, La Chaux-de-Fonds was heavily impacted by the consequences of the First World War (1914–1918) despite Swiss neutrality: the once-flourishing watch industry fell into a deep crisis, and unemployment and social tensions defined everyday life. At the same time, lively socialist and artistic movements developed, inspired by the Russian Revolution (1918/1919). The work of Charles L’Eplattenier (1874-1946) Evard emerged within this tension between social unrest and spiritual renewal.
The painting depicts a vast, gently rolling mountain landscape in vibrant shades of green and blue. In the foreground, winding paths lead through hilly terrain with scattered dark trees and warmly colored shrub forms, while staggered mountain ranges in softly graded colors extend into the distance behind them. The sky is streaked with delicate, moving clouds in which several birds calmly circle. The simplified, slightly abstracted formal language combines the observation of nature with a symbolic condensation, lending the scene a quiet, almost meditative atmosphere.
Thus, the image can be read as an expression of inner retreat, but also as a search for order and harmony in a time of profound upheaval.