Annotated Masterpieces

Félix Vallotton was a Swiss painter and printmaker associated with group Les Nabis. 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. His earliest paintings, chiefly portraits, are firmly rooted in the academic tradition. He was influenced by post-Impressionism, Symbolism, and especially by the Japanese woodcut. During the 1890s, when Vallotton was closely allied with the avant-garde, his paintings reflected the style of his woodcuts, with flat areas of color, hard edges, and simplification of detail. His subjects included genre scenes, portraits and nudes. Vallotton's paintings of the post-Nabi period found admirers, and were generally respected for their truthfulness and their technical qualities, but the severity of his style was frequently criticized, and has a further parallel in the work of Edward Hopper.