Félix Édouard Vallotton (; December 28, 1865December 29, 1925) was a Swiss and French painter and

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed technique ...

associated with the group of artists known as '. He was an important figure in the development of the modern

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

. He painted

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

s, nudes,

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

s, and other subjects in an unemotional, realistic style. His earliest paintings were influenced by

Holbein Holbein may refer to: *Holbein (surname) *Holbein, Saskatchewan, a small village in Canada *Holbein carpet, a type of Ottoman carpet *Holbein stitch, a type of embroidery stitch * Holbein (crater), a crater on Mercury {{Disambig ...

and

Ingres Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( ; ; 29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassicism, Neoclassical Painting, painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic ...

. He developed a simpler style during his association with Les Nabis during the 1890s, and produced woodcuts which brought him international recognition. Characterized by broad masses of black and white with minimal detail, they include street scenes, bathers, portraits, and a series of ten interiors titled ''Intimités (Intimacies)'' that portray charged domestic encounters between men and women. He produced few prints after 1901, and concentrated instead on painting. His later paintings include highly finished portraits and nudes, and landscapes painted from memory. He was also active as a writer. He published art criticism during the 1890s, and his novel ''La Vie meurtrière'' (The Murderous Life) was published posthumously.

Early life

Vallotton was born into a conservative middle-class family in

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

, the third of four children. His father owned a pharmacy, and later purchased a chocolate factory. His mother, Emma, was the daughter of a furniture craftsman. His family environment was warm but strict, in the Swiss Protestant tradition. Beginning in 1875 he attended the Collège Cantonal, graduating with a degree in classical studies in 1882. He also began to attend the drawing classes of the painter Jean-Samson Guignard, normally reserved for the most advanced students, where he showed a particular skill in close observation and realism. When he completed the course, he persuaded his parents to let him go to Paris to study art seriously. In January 1882 he settled in Rue Jacob in the neighborhood of

Saint-Germain-des-Prés Saint-Germain-des-Prés () is one of the four administrative quarters of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France, located around the church of the former Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Its official borders are the River Seine on the nor ...

, and enrolled in

Académie Julian The () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907). The school was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number and qual ...

, where he studied with the portrait painter

Jules Joseph Lefebvre Jules Joseph Lefebvre (; 14 March 183624 February 1911) was a French painter, educator and theorist. Early life Lefebvre was born in Tournan-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, on 14 March 1836. He entered the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Ar ...

and the history painter Gustave Boulanger, and where he perfected his technical skills. He spent many hours in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

, and he greatly admired the works of

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...

, Holbein, Dürer, and more modern painters, including

Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, an ...

and Manet, and especially Ingres, whose works were models for Vallotton throughout his life. In 1883, Vallotton's father wrote to Lefebvre, questioning whether his son could make a living as a painter. Lefebre responded that the young Vallotton had the talent and ability to succeed. In the same year, Vallotton succeeded in the rigorous competition to enter the

École des Beaux-Arts ; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centu ...

, but decided instead to remain at the Académie Julian, where his friends were. He also began to frequent the cafés and cabarets of

Montmartre Montmartre ( , , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement of Paris, 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Rive Droite, Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for its a ...

.Rousseau and Protais 2013, pp. 10–11 Vallotton Mon portrait 1885

In 1885 the methodical Vallotton began keeping a notebook, called his ''Livre de Raison'', in which he listed all of his paintings, drawings, sculptures and prints. He kept the log his entire life. When he died, it listed one thousand seven hundred works. In the same year he presented his first works at the Paris Salon, the Ingresque ''Portrait of Monsieur Ursenbach,'' as well as his first painted self-portrait, which received an honorable mention. That same year he also presented a painting at the ''Salon des beaux-arts'' in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

Career

Early career (1887–1891)

In 1887 Vallotton presented two portraits at the Salon, the ''Portrait de Félix Jasinski'' and ''Les Parents de l'artiste'', which demonstrated his skill but also, by their extreme realism, departed from the traditions of portrait painting. They were severely criticized by his professor, Jules Lefebvre. Vallotton increasingly began to work outside of the Académie Julien. He began to have financial difficulties; his father, whose firm was having its own financial problems, was unable to support him. His health also suffered, as he came down with

typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known simply as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella enterica'' serotype Typhi bacteria, also called ''Salmonella'' Typhi. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often th ...

and then a bout of depression. In 1889 he returned to

Zermatt Zermatt (, ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Visp (district), Visp in the German language, German-speaking section of the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a year-round population of about 5,800 and is cl ...

, Switzerland for several weeks to recover, and there painted several Alpine landscapes. In 1889 he also met Hélene Chatenay, an employee in a Swiss factory or shop, who became his companion for ten years.Rousseau and Protais 2013, pp. 12–13 He presented several paintings at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889, and at the same exposition he saw the gallery of Japanese prints, particularly works by

Hokusai , known mononymously as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. His woodblock printing in Japan, woodblock print series ''Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'' includes the iconic print ''The Gr ...

, which were to greatly influence his work. To earn his living, Vallotton worked as an art restorer for the gallery owner Henri Haro. In 1890, he became an art critic for the Swiss newspaper ''La Gazette de Lausanne'', writing some thirty articles about the Paris art world until 1897. In the same year he made a European tour, visiting Berlin, Prague, and Venice. He was particularly impressed by Italy, and returned there frequently in later years. In 1891, he showed his canvases for the last time in the official Salon des Artistes, and for the first time participated in the more avant-garde Salon des Independants, displaying six paintings. He began to receive commissions from Swiss art patrons. He experimented more frequently with various ways of making prints, using a technique called xylographie, in which he became very adept. He executed his first

, a portrait of

Paul Verlaine Paul-Marie Verlaine ( ; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolism (movement), Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the ''fin de siècle'' ...

. His method was to make a very precise and detailed drawing, and then to simplify and simplify. His work was noticed by the writer and journalist Octave Uzanne, who published an article describing his work as "The renaissance of the woodcut". The meticulous style of painting seen in the works of Vallotton's early period reached its zenith in ''The Patient'', a canvas in which his companion, Hélene Chatenay, portrays an invalid. Completed in 1892, it was Vallotton's last major painting before he began to introduce into his painted works the simplifying style he was developing in his woodcuts.

With the Nabis (1892–1900)

In 1892, he became a member of ''

Les Nabis The Nabis (, ) were a group of young French artists active in Paris from 1888 until 1900, who played a large part in the transition from Impressionism and academic art to abstract art, symbolism and the other early movements of modernism. The me ...

'', a semi-secret, semi-mystical group of young artists, mostly from the Académie Julian, which included

Pierre Bonnard Pierre Bonnard (; 3 October 186723 January 1947) was a French painter, illustrator and printmaker, known especially for the stylized decorative qualities of his paintings and his bold use of color. A founding member of the Post-Impressionist gr ...

Ker-Xavier Roussel Ker-Xavier Roussel (10 December 1867 – 6 June 1944) was a French painter associated with Les Nabis. Biography Born François Xavier Roussel in Lorry-lès-Metz, Moselle in 1867, at age fifteen he studied at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris; along ...

Maurice Denis Maurice Denis (; 25 November 1870 – 13 November 1943) was a French painter, decorative artist, and writer. An important figure in the transitional period between impressionism and modern art, he is associated with '' Les Nabis'', symbolism, ...

, and

Édouard Vuillard Jean-Édouard Vuillard (; 11 November 186821 June 1940) was a French painter, decorative artist, and printmaker. From 1891 through 1900, Vuillard was a member of the avant garde artistic group Les Nabis, creating paintings that assembled areas ...

, with whom Vallotton was to form a lifelong friendship. While the Nabis shared certain common ideas and goals, their styles were quite different and personal. He kept himself somewhat apart from the others, earning his jocular title among the Nabis as "The Foreign Nabi".Rousseau and Protais 2013, p. 19 Vallotton's paintings in this period reflected the style of his woodcuts, with flat areas of color, hard edges, and simplification of detail. His subjects included

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

scenes, portraits and nudes. Examples of his Nabi style are the deliberately awkward ''Bathers on a Summer Evening'' (1892–93), now in the

Kunsthaus Zürich The Kunsthaus Zürich is an art museum in Zurich. It is the biggest art museum in Switzerland by area and houses one of the most important art collections in Switzerland, assembled over time by the Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft, a nonprofit art soc ...

, and the symbolist ''Moonlight'' (1895), in the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...

. His paintings began to be noticed by the public and critics; ''Bathers on a Summer Evening'', presented at the Salon des Indépendents, was met with harsh criticism and laughter. But his woodcuts attracted attention and clients, and he became financially secure. Between 1893 and 1897, he received many commissions for illustrations from notable French newspapers and magazines, including '' La Revue Blanche'', and from foreign art publications, including '' The Chap-Book'' of Chicago. He also made woodcuts for the covers of theater programs and book illustrations. One of his prominent patrons was Thadée Natanson, the publisher of the ''Revue Blanche'', and his wife Misia, who commissioned many important decorative works from the Nabis. Through the Natansons, Vallotton was introduced to the avant-garde elite of Paris, including

Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French Symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools o ...

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...

, Eric Satie, and

Claude Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

. His woodcut subjects included domestic scenes, bathing women, portrait heads, and several images of street crowds and demonstrations—notably, several scenes of police attacking anarchists. He usually depicted types rather than individuals, eschewed the expression of strong emotion, and "fuse a graphic wit with an acerbic if not ironic humor". Vallotton's graphic art reached its highest development in ''Intimités (Intimacies)'', a series of ten interiors published in 1898 by the ''Revue Blanche'', which deal with tension between men and women. Vallotton's woodcuts were widely disseminated in periodicals and books in Europe as well as in the United States, and have been suggested as a significant influence on the graphic art of

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( ; ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His 1893 work ''The Scream'' has become one of Western art's most acclaimed images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dread of inher ...

Aubrey Beardsley Aubrey Vincent Beardsley ( ; 21 August 187216 March 1898) was an English illustrator and author. His black ink drawings were influenced by Woodblock printing in Japan, Japanese woodcuts, and depicted the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. ...

, and

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (6 May 1880 – 15 June 1938) was a German Expressionism, expressionist Painting, painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expr ...

. In 1898 he bought a Kodak no.2 'Bullet' and experimented with it as a basis for at least five interior paintings. His first photos were taken in: Chateau d'Etretat, Chateau de la Naz, the Natansons' summer house above

Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...

, and the Villa Beaulieu in Honfleur. Art historian Anca I Lasc suggests ''Woman in Blue Rummaging Through a Cupboard'' (1903) was based on a photograph taken in Vallotton's own Paris home on Rue Milan or rue de Belles Feuilles. Therefore, his paintings were most likely based on real interiors. By 1900, the Nabis had drifted apart. One source of the division was the Dreyfus affair, the case of a Jewish army officer falsely accused of aiding the Germans. The Nabis were divided, with Vallotton passionately defending Dreyfus. He produced a series of satirical woodcuts on the affair, including ''The Age of the Newspaper'', which were published on the frontpage of ''

Le Cri de Paris ''Le Cri de Paris'' was an illustrated French political magazine that was founded by Alexandre Natanson in 1897 and was at the beginning a supplement of ''La Revue Blanche''. ''Le Cri de Paris'' title means ''The Paris Protest'' in English, but ...

'' on January 23, 1898, at the height of the affair.Rousseau and Protais 2013, p. 23 Another major event during this period was his marriage in 1899 to Gabrielle Rodrigues-Hénriques, the widowed daughter of Alexandre Bernheim, one of the most successful art dealers in Europe and founder of the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune. The union brought to his household three children from her previous marriage. There are few interiors by Vallotton that show children except for ''Dinner by Lamplight'' showing his stepson Max, stepdaughter Madeline, with Gabrielle on his right with the back of the own artist's head. After a brief honeymoon in Switzerland, they moved to a large apartment on near the

Gare Saint-Lazare The Gare Saint-Lazare (; ), officially Paris Saint Lazare, is one of the seven large mainline List of Paris railway stations, railway station terminals in Paris, France. It was the first railway station built in Paris, opening in 1837. It mostly ...

train station. The marriage brought him financial security, and he gradually abandoned woodcuts as his main source of income. He also established a solid relationship with the Bernheim family and their gallery, which presented a special exhibition devoted to the Nabis, including ten of his works. Thereafter he devoted his attention almost entirely to painting. Vallotton_Die_Kranke_1892.jpg, ''The Patient'' (1892), private collection Félix Vallotton, 1893 - La Valse.jpg, ''Waltz'' (1893), Museum of modern art André Malraux - MuMa,

Le Havre Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...

File:Félix Vallotton, 1898 - La chambre rouge.jpg, ''La Chambre rouge'' (1898), tempera on board File:Vallotton-Raison.gif, ''La raison probante (The Cogent Reason)'', a

from the series ''Intimités'' (1898) File:Felix Vallotton - The Laundress, Blue Room.jpg, ''The Laundress, Blue Room'' (1900) File:Nuage à Romanel.jpg, ''Cloud in Romanel'' (1900)

After the Nabis (1901–1914)

In the years after the Nabis, the reputation of Vallotton grew. In January 1903, he presented a selection of his works at exposition of painters of the

Vienna Secession The Vienna Secession (; also known as the Union of Austrian Artists or ) is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian painters, graphic artists, sculptors and architects, including Josef Ho ...

, and sold several works. In May 1903, the Bernheim gallery gave him a one-man show, which brought him good reviews. At the end of the year, the French government made its first purchase of one of his paintings for the

Luxembourg Museum Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembourg ...

, then Paris's leading museum of modern art. Despite his successes, his financial situation was still precarious. He experimented for a time with sculpture. He continued to publish occasional art criticism, in addition to other writings. He wrote eight plays, some of which received performances (in 1904 and 1907), although their reviews appear to have been unfavorable. He also wrote three novels, including the semi-autobiographical ''La Vie meurtrière'' (The Murderous Life), begun in 1907 and published posthumously. His fortunes changed for the better at the beginning of 1907, with a show at the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery and the sale of thirteen paintings. He also presented a painting, ''Three women and a girl playing in the water'', at the Salon of the

Société des Artistes Indépendants The Société des Artistes Indépendants (, ''Society of Independent Artists'') or Salon des Indépendants was formed in Paris on 29 July 1884. The association began with the organization of massive exhibitions in Paris, choosing the slogan "''sa ...

, which received good reviews. He made a trip to Italy with Gabrielle, and on his return painted ''The Turkish Bath'', which was praised by among others the poet and critic

Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire (; ; born Kostrowicki; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist and art critic of Poland, Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the ...

.Rousseau and Protais 2013, p. 28 Vallotton's paintings of the post-Nabi period had admirers, and were generally respected for their truthfulness and their technical qualities, but the severity of his style was frequently criticized. Typical is the reaction of the critic who, writing in the March 23, 1910 issue of ''Neue Zürcher Zeitung'', complained that Vallotton "paints like a policeman, like someone whose job it is to catch forms and colors. Everything creaks with an intolerable dryness ... the colors lack all joyfulness." In its uncompromising character his art prefigured the

New Objectivity The New Objectivity (in ) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against German Expressionism, expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the ''Kunsthalle Mannheim, Kunsthalle' ...

that flourished in Germany during the 1920s, and has a further parallel in the work of

Edward Hopper Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American realism painter and printmaker. He is one of America's most renowned artists and known for his skill in depicting modern American life and landscapes. Born in Nyack, New York, to a ...

. In 1912 the French government offered him the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

, but like his fellow Nabis

and

, he declined. File:The Port of Honfleur at Night MET XX13.jpg, ''The Port of Honfleur at Night'' (1901)

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

Félix Vallotton, 1907 - Trois femmes et une petite fille jouant dans l'eau.jpg, ''Three Women and a Little Girl Playing in the Water'' (1907) File:Félix Vallotton-Honfleur dans la brume-Musée des beaux-arts de Nancy.jpg, ''Honfleur dans la brume'' (''Honfleur in the Mist''), 1911 File:Félix Vallotton - Das blühende Feld.jpeg, ''Blooming Fields'' (1912) File:Félix Vallotton, 1914 - Self Portrait.jpg, Self-portrait (1914)

The First World War and final years (1915–1925)

The Swiss Vallotton had been naturalized as a French citizen in 1900. When World War I began in August 1914, he volunteered for the army. He was rejected because of his age (forty-eight), but did what he could do for the war effort. In 1915–16, he returned to the medium of woodcut for the first time since 1901 to express his feelings for his adopted country in the series, ''This is War'', his last prints. In June 1917, the Ministry of Fine Arts sent him, along with two other artists, for a three-week tour of the front lines. The sketches he produced became the basis for a group of paintings, ''The Church of Souain in Silhouette'' among them, in which he recorded with cool detachment the ruined landscape. The works made by the three artists were presented at the

Musée du Luxembourg The () is a museum at 19 in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. Established in 1750, it was initially an art museum located in the east wing of the Luxembourg Palace (the matching west wing housed the Marie de' Medici cycle by Peter Paul Rubens) an ...

. After the end of the war, Vallotton concentrated especially on

s and on "composite

landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

", landscapes composed in the studio from memory and imagination, and on flamboyantly erotic nudes. He had persistent health problems, and he and his wife passed the winters in

Cagnes-sur-Mer Cagnes-sur-Mer (, literally ''Cagnes on Sea''; ) is a French Riviera town near Nice that is in the Alpes-Maritimes department, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in southeastern France. Geography Cagnes-sur-Mer is a town in southeaste ...

Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...

, where they bought a small house, and

Honfleur Honfleur () is a commune in the Calvados department in northwestern France. It is located on the southern bank of the estuary of the Seine across from Le Havre and very close to the exit of the Pont de Normandie. The people that inhabit Hon ...

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

, where they had a summer house. By the end of his life he had completed over 1700 paintings and about 200 prints, in addition to hundreds of drawings and several sculptures. He died in 1925 on the day after his 60th birthday, following cancer surgery in Paris. A retrospective exhibition by the Salon des Indépendants took place in 1926. Some of Vallotton's works were exhibited at the

Grand Palais The (; ), commonly known as the , is a historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris between the Champs-Élysées and the Seine, France. Construction of the began in 1897 following the demolitio ...

, along with works by

van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artwork ...

, Modigliani,

Seurat Georges Pierre Seurat ( , ; ; 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist artist. He devised the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism and used conté crayon for drawings on paper with a rough ...

Toulouse-Lautrec ''Comte'' Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901), known as Toulouse-Lautrec (), was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful an ...

, Schützenberger and others. Vallotton's brother Paul was an art dealer and founded the Galerie Paul Vallotton in

in 1922, which continued operation for many years under the control of his descendants. Vallotton's niece was Annie Vallotton, the illustrator of the ''

Good News Bible Good News Bible (GNB), also called the Good News Translation (GNT) in the United States, is an English translation of the Bible by the American Bible Society. It was first published as the New Testament under the name ''Good News for Modern Ma ...

''. Felix Valloton Krieg Etude.jpg, ''War'' (Study), 1915 Félix Vallotton, 1917 - Verdun.jpg, ''Verdun'' (1917), The Army Museum (Paris) File:Felix Vallotton-Le Bois de la Gruerie et le ravin des Meurissons-1917.jpg, ''Le Bois de la Gruerie et le ravin des Meurissons'' (1917) Image:Valloton-Paysage.jpg, ''Landscape'' (1918) Félix Vallotton, 1918 - Le Jambon.jpg, ''The Ham'' (1918) File:Félix Vallotton, La plage à Honfleur, 1919. Oil on canvas, 54 x 81 cm..jpg, ''La plage à Honfleur'' (1919) File:Félix Vallotton Tulipes perroquet,fond bibliothèque.jpg, ''Tulips'' (1920) Félix Vallotton Les Alyscamps soleil matin.jpg, ''Alyscamps Morning Sun'' (1920) Vallotton, Femme nue dormant au bord de l'eau.jpg, '' Femme nue dormant au bord de l'eau'', 1921 File:Félix Vallotton, 1923 - Autoportrait.jpg, Self-portrait (1923)

Paintings

Paris scenes

During his Nabi period in the 1890s, Vallotton was living largely from the income he made making illustrations for fashion magazines and popular novels, He created a series of paintings called ''Scenes of the Paris streets'', probably for a novel by Octave Uzanne called ''Les Rassemblements''. The paintings, using tempera on cardboard, used the Nabi trademark method of flat areas of color, and the Nabi-influenced use of aerial and other unusual perspectives taken from Japanese prints. These works also expressed his social and political attitudes, contrasting the workers struggling to carry heavy sacks with the fashionable women in bright colors carrying wrapped packages from the new Paris department stores. He captured the activity and color inside Bon Marché and the other new Paris department stores. His street scenes were filled with activity and movement, capturing small scenes that appealed to his sense of humor or irony. File:Félix Vallotton, 1887 - Au marché.jpg, ''At the Market'' (1887) File:Street Scene in Paris (Coin de rue à Paris) MET DT3331.jpg, ''Street Scene in Paris'' (1895), tempera on board,

File:Félix Vallotton, 1898 - Bon Marché D.jpg, ''Bon Marché'' (1898), right panel of a triptych showing shoppers in a department store File:Félix Vallotton Place Clichy.jpg, ''Place Clichy'' (1901)

Landscapes and seascapes

Vallotton's landscapes and seascapes avoided conventional views and techniques, and presented unusual viewpoints and perspectives. The scene is sometimes seen from above, with the horizon very high in the picture, or without the sky being visible at all. The forms are simplified, and the figures are often small and almost unrecognizable. In his famous ''The Ball'' of 1899 (Musée d'Orsay), the scene is viewed from above, with three tiny figures: a girl chasing a ball and two mysterious figures in the distance having a conversation. The drama in the picture is the contrast between the sunlight and the shade. In his 1899 painting of laundresses drying clothes on the beach of

Étretat Étretat () is a Communes of France, commune in the Seine-Maritime Departments of France, department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy Regions of France, region of Northwestern France. It is a Tourism, tourist and Agriculture, far ...

, the women are almost unrecognizable as such until the picture is examined closely. He wrote in his journal, "I dream of a painting entirely disengaged from any literal concern about nature. I want to construct landscapes entirely based on the emotions that they have created in me, a few evocative lines, one or two details, chosen, without a superstition of the exactitude of the hour or the lighting." File:Félix Vallotton, 1895c - Clair de lune.jpg, ''Moonlight'' (ca. 1894),

, Paris File:Félix Vallotton - The Ball - Google Art Project.jpg, ''The Ball'' (1899),

, Paris File:Félix Vallotton, 1899 - Laveuses à Étretat.jpg, ''Laundresses at Étretat'' (1899) File:Félix Vallotton - Letzte Sonnenstahlen.jpeg, ''Last rays of Sunshine'' (1911) File:Vallotton, 1918 - En rade du Havre.jpg, ''The Bay of Le Havre'' (1918) File:Felix Vallotton, 1917 - La baie de Trégastel.jpg, ''The Bay of Trégastel'' (1917)

Interiors

Many of Vallotton's paintings depicted interior apartment scenes, usually with men and women, sometimes hinting at scandal or adultery, sometimes simple scenes such as taking sheets out of a linen closet. The paintings often depicted open doorways or open doors leading to bedrooms. His wife, Gabrielle, appeared in many of the paintings, and the apartments resembled his own on rue des Belles-Feuilles. This theme is exemplified by his painting ''Haut de Forme'' (1887), and was most frequent in his work between 1898 and about 1904. MuMA - Vallotton - La visite.JPG, ''Haut de Forme'' (''The visit''), 1887,

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

File:Félix Vallotton, 1898 - La chambre rouge.jpg, ''The Red Chamber'' (1898), tempera on board File:Félix Vallotton, 1899 - La Visite.jpg, ''The Visit'' (1899),

gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouach ...

on board,

File:Félix Vallotton, 1901 - Femme fouillant dans un placard.jpg, ''Woman searching in a wardrobe'' (1901) File:Intérieur, femme en bleu fouillant dans une armoire.jpg, ''Woman in blue looking in a closet'' (1903) File:Félix Vallotton, 1903 - Intérieur avec femme en rouge de dos.jpg, ''Interior with women in red robe'' (1904)

The female nude

The female nude was a very common subject for Vallotton; his journal records about five hundred paintings in this genre. The early nudes, when he was with the Nabis, were stylized and simplified. Later, the paintings became more detailed and realistic. The decor in the paintings was minimal. The choice of colors—particularly the use of complementary red and green—emphasizes the paleness of the model's skin. There is no effort to make the models romantic or beautiful, and they never smile. File:Valloton Frau mit Dienstmagd beim Baden.jpg, ''The Mistress and the Servant'' (1896), oil on board, 52 x 66 cm, private collection File:Félix Vallotton, 1908 - Le sommeil.jpg, ''Sleep'' (1908) File:FelixVallotton-Nu.JPG, ''Nude'', (1912),

Kunstmuseum Winterthur The Kunst Museum Winterthur (The Winterthur Museum of Art) is an art museum in Winterthur, Switzerland run by the local ''Kunstverein''. From its beginnings, the activities of the Kunstverein Winterthur were focused on contemporary art – first ...

File:La Blanche et la Noire - Félix Vallotton - 1913.jpg, ''La Blanche et la Noire'' (1913) File:1921 Vallotton Blonder Akt anagoria.JPG, ''Blonde Nude'' (1921)

Encounters and conversations

Sympathetic to the anarchist movement in his youth, Vallotton was an intense critic of Parisian life and values of the Paris upper class in the

Belle Époque The Belle Époque () or La Belle Époque () was a period of French and European history that began after the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 and continued until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era of the Fr ...

. In the 1890s as a Nabi, he contributed many satirical illustrations to radical revues such as ''Assiette au beurre'' and ''Le Cri de Paris''. His political attitudes changed somewhat in 1899 when he married Gabrielle Rodrigues-Hénriques, a member of a wealthy family, and he found himself a member of the class he was accustomed to condemn. Despite Vallotton's new position, he continued his social criticism. He painted numerous scenes of intimate conversations between men and women, sometimes in restaurants, sometimes at the theater—often scenes suggesting seduction, rarely scenes suggesting romance or love. They expressed his satirical view of life in Paris at the time. The critic

Octave Mirbeau Octave Henri Marie Mirbeau (; 16 February 1848 – 16 February 1917) was a French novelist, art critic, travel writer, pamphleteer, journalist and playwright, who achieved celebrity in Europe and great success among the public, whilst still app ...

described the figures in this particular genre of Vallotton's paintings in 1910: " e figures don't just smile and cry, they speak ...they express strongly, with the most moving eloquence, when it is Monsieur Vallotton who hears them speak, their humanity and the character of their humanity." ''The Provincial'' (1909) depicts a woman in a bar seducing a provincial visitor to Paris. File:Felix Vallotton Interior with Couple and Screen (Intimacy).jpg, ''Interior with Couple and Screen (Intimacy)'', 1898, tempera on board File:Félix Vallotton, 1898 - Le mensonge.jpg, ''The lie'' (1898), oil on board,

Baltimore Museum of Art The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in Baltimore, Maryland, is an art museum that was founded in 1914. The BMA's collection of 95,000 objects encompasses more than 1,000 works by Henri Matisse anchored by the Cone Collection of modern art, ...

File:Félix Vallotton, 1909 - Le Provincial.jpg, ''The Provincial'' (1909) File:Félix Vallotton, 1909 - La loge de théatre, le monsieur et la dame.jpg , ''Box Seats at the Theatre, the Gentleman and the Lady'' (1909) File:Félix Vallotton, 1922 - La Chaste Suzanne.jpg, ''Chaste Suzanne'' (1922)

Still lifes

In his later years, painting in his studio in

, he concentrated particularly on

s, particularly flowers, fruits and vegetables, very carefully arranged and painted with extreme precision. He used very vivid colors and was especially meticulous in painting the reflections of light on the fruits, vegetables, and ceramic vases. He wrote in his journal on August 13, 1919: "More than ever the object amuses me; the perfection of an egg; the moisture on a tomato; the striking (''martelage'') of a

hortensia ''Hydrangea'' ( or ) is a genus of more than 70 species of Flowering plant, flowering plants native plant, native to Asia and the Americas. Hydrangea is also used as the common name for the genus; some (particularly ''Hydrangea macrophylla, H. m ...

flower; these are the problems for me to resolve." File:Felix Vallotton - Pfefferfrüchte.jpg, ''Red peppers'' (1915), Kunstmuseum Solothurn, Switzerland File:Félix Vallotton, 1923 - Still-life with capucines.jpg, ''Still life with capucines'' (1923) Image:Marigolds and Tangerines.JPG, ''Marigolds and Tangerines'' (1924), oil on canvas,

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

File:Félix Vallotton, 1925 - Oignons et soupière.jpg, ''Onions and a soup tureen'' (1925) File:Still Life with Flowers MET ep67.187.117.R.jpg, ''Still life with flowers'' (1925),

Portraits

Vallotton was recognized as a very accomplished portrait painter, and painted portraits of many of the leading figures in the arts of his time. His early work included a portrait of his fellow Nabi

. The portraits of Vallotton featured both precision and a certain cold realism. He painted the celebrated American writer and art patron

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh), and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris in 1903, and ...

the year after

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

made his '' Portrait of Gertrude Stein'', and depicted her as seemingly without emotion. One of his late portraits, ''The Roumanian in a Red Dress'' (1925) caused a minor scandal. The portrait of Mado Leviseano, a Paris prostitute, shows her slumped in her chair, with a nonchalant and provocative expression. Speaking of portraits in general, Vallotton wrote: "Human bodies, like faces, have their own individual expressions, which reveal, by their angles, their folds, their wrinkles, the joy, the pain, the boredom, the worries, the appetites, and the physical decay imposed by work, and the corrosive bitterness of voluptuousness."Rousseau and Protais (2013), p. 116 After the death of Vallotton, the work was donated by his family to the

, the most important museum of

modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradit ...

in Paris at the time. But visitors to the museum complained about the woman's posture and facial expression, and after three years it was taken down. His widow battled to have it restored to view, and the Paris museums took it back. It now is in the collection of the

. File:Félix Vallotton, 1893 - Portrait d'Édouard Vuillard.jpg, ''Portrait of

'' (1893) File:Felix Vallotton, 1899 - Alexandre Natanson.jpg, ''Portrait of Alexandre Natanson'' (1899), Musée d'Orsay File:Félix Vallotton, 1901 - Charles Baudelaire.jpg, ''Portrait of

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics ...

'' (1901) File:Gabrielle Vallotton.jpg, ''Portrait of Gabrielle Vallotton'' (1905), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux File:Félix Valloton, Portrait of Gertrude Stein 1907.jpg, ''Portrait of

'' (1907),

File:Félix Vallotton, 1925 - La Roumaine en robe rouge.jpg, ''Roumanian in a Red Dress'' (1925), Musée d'Orsay File:Aicha Goblet, by Felix Vallotton.jpg, Aïcha Goblet (1922)

Woodcuts

In the western world, the

relief print Relief printing is a family of printing methods where a printing block, plate or matrix, which has had ink applied to its non-recessed surface, is brought into contact with paper. The non-recessed surface will leave ink on the paper, whereas th ...

, in the form of commercial

wood engraving Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and prints using relatively l ...

, had long been utilized mainly as a means to accurately reproduce drawn or painted images and, in later years, photographs. Vallotton's woodcut style was novel in its starkly reductive opposition of large masses of undifferentiated black and areas of unmodulated white. Vallotton emphasized outline and flat patterns, and generally eliminated the gradations and modeling traditionally produced by

hatching Hatching () is an artistic technique used to create tonal or shading effects by drawing (or painting or scribing) closely spaced parallel lines. When lines are placed at an angle to one another, it is called cross-hatching. Hatching is als ...

. He was influenced by

post-Impressionism Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...

Symbolism Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

, and especially by the Japanese woodcut: a large exhibition of

ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art that flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock printing, woodblock prints and Nikuhitsu-ga, paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes ...

prints had been presented at the

in 1890, and Vallotton, who was like many artists of his era an enthusiast of

Japonisme ''Japonisme'' is a French term that refers to the popularity and influence of Japanese art and design among a number of Western European artists in the nineteenth century following the Bakumatsu, forced reopening of foreign trade with Japan in 1 ...

, collected these prints.St. James 1978, pp.7–9 Image:Félix Vallotton autoportrait 1.jpg, ''Self portrait'', 1891 Image:Paul Adam.jpg, '' Paul Adam'', 1896 Image:Léon Blum by Vallotton.svg, ''

Léon Blum André Léon Blum (; 9 April 1872 – 30 March 1950) was a French socialist politician and three-time Prime Minister of France. As a Jew, he was heavily influenced by the Dreyfus affair of the late 19th century. He was a disciple of socialist l ...

'', 1900 Image:Félix Fénéon by Vallotton.jpg, ''

Félix Fénéon Félix Fénéon (; 22 June 1861 – 29 February 1944) was a French art critic, gallery director, writer and anarchist during the late 19th century and early 20th century. He coined the term '' Neo-Impressionism'' in 1886 to identify a group of ...

'', 1898 Image:Raoul Rigault by Vallotton.jpg, '' Raoul Rigault'', 1897

Notes and citations

References

* Brodskaïa, Nathalia (1996). ''Félix Vallotton: The Nabi from Switzerland''. Bournemouth: Parkstone. * Cahn, Isabelle & Vallotton, Félix and Galeries nationales du Grand Palais (2013). ''Félix Vallotton''. Paris: RMN-Grand Palais.(in French) * Ducrey, Marina (1989). ''Félix Vallotton: His Life, His Technique, His Paintings''. Lausanne: Edita SA. * Ducrey, Marina & Vallotton, Felix (2007). ''Vallotton''. Milan: 5 continents. * Frèches-Thory, Claire & Perucchi-Petry, Ursula, ed. (1993). ''Die Nabis: Propheten der Moderne'', Kunsthaus Zürich & Grand Palais, Paris & Prestel, Munich. (German), (French) * Newman, Sasha M., Félix Vallotton, Marina Ducrey, and Lesley K. Baier (1991). ''Félix Vallotton''. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery. * Rousseau, Éloi & Protais, Johann (2013). ''Les plus belles oeuvres de Vallotton''. Paris: Éditions Larousse. * St. James, Ashley (1978). ''Vallotton: Graphics''. London: Ash & Grant Ltd.