Felix Vallotton

Felix Vallotton was a Franco-Swiss painter, engraver, illustrator and writer (Lausanne 1865-Paris 1925).

Felix Vallotton, La Malade, 1892
Oil on canvas, 74 x 100 cm Felix Vallotton (Lausanne, 28th December 1865 – 29th December 1925) was a French post-impressionist painter, associated with the Nabis movement.

Biography
At the age of seventeen, he left for Paris to learn painting at the well-known Academie Julian, where many famous post-impressionist and Les Nabis group artists went studying in the late XIXth Century.

Within ten years the young Swiss succeeded in making a name in avant-garde Paris and internationally as well, due to his woodcuts and black-and-white illustrations whose modernism created a sensation.

From 1899 onwards he devoted himself essentially to painting which he regularly exhibited in Paris and in Switzerland as well as in the best known international exhibitions.

A dedicated worker, he was instantly searching for new ways of expression. Thus, although deeply affected by the events, did he find in World War I new sources of inspiration that led him to the margin of abstraction. Success returned with the restoration of peace. But the artist's premature death on the 29th December 1925 prevented him from further enjoying it.

Works
Vallotton dealt with all types of painting: still lifes, portraits, interiors, figures, nudes, landscapes and large mythological or allegorical scenes. Before the war he had already achieved recognition for his mastery of nudes and figures. Subsequently, his "composed landscapes", recreated from memory in his studio, met with a growing interest. Many were the sources which inspired his landscapes: Switzerland and in particular the area around Lac Leman where he returned regularly for holidays; the surroundings of Honfleur, his Summer residence from 1909 onwards, as well as many other regions of France ; also Italy which he regularly visited, and Russia where he stayed in 1913.

Felix Vallotton's work is widely diversified, since it comprises more than 200 engravings, innumerable drawings, some 1700 paintings, a few sculptures, as well as writings including three novels, several plays, essays and art criticism.

The paintings are the excellent portrayal of the events and scenes that we see around us. The painters are the best cameras of the world. They reproduce many different types of pictures. They even draw imaginary pictures that do not exist in this world. We tend to use both thinned oil paints and dense oil paints. Masterpieces can be dyed more than once, but each time it may be different from the existing paintings.h

Sitemap
Painter sitemap
Techniques sitemap
Materials sitemap