1865 -1925 · Nabi, xylography, psychological interiors and recomposed landscape

Sharp blacks, silent flat areas, ambiguous couples and reconstructed landscapes give Félix Vallotton a modern art of disturbing clarity.

Félix Vallotton was born in Lausanne in 1865 and moved to Paris at seventeen to study at the Académie Julian. His precise drawing and his taste for Holbein and Ingres initially nourished an austere realism. At the beginning of the 1890s, he joined the Nabis group around Bonnard, Vuillard and Maurice Denis, while maintaining an ironic distance. Vallotton then renewed wood engraving. Using massive blacks, cut-out whites and simplified silhouettes, he transformed wood engraving. Using massive blacks, cut-out whites and simplified silhouettes, he transformed demonstrations, crowds, accidents and bourgeois scenes into immediately readable images. His series published in the press, notably Intimités, made him a master of condensed narration. A gesture, one door, furniture or a gray area are enough to suggest lies, adultery, violence or domination. After his marriage to Gabrielle Rodrigues-Henriques in 1899 and his French naturalization in 1900, he devoted himself more to painting. Its densely colored interiors retain the tension of xylography. Nudes, portraits and couple scenes remain deliberately smooth, almost cold, so that the unease comes from the composition rather than the brushstroke. In his landscapes, Vallotton often works from memory, simplifies shapes and redistributes light and color. In his landscapes, Vallotton often works from memory, simplifies shapes and redistributes light and color. In his landscapes, Vallotton often works from memory, simplifies shapes and redistributes light and color. In his landscapes, Vallotton often works from memory, simplifies shapes and redistributes light and color. In his landscapes, Vallotton often works from memory, simplifies shapes and redistributes light and color. In his landscapes, Vallotton often works from memory, simplifies shapes and redistributes light and color. In his landscapes, Vallotton often works from memory, simplifies shapes and redistributes light and color. In his landscapes, Vallotton often works from memory, simplifies shapes and redistrib Also a novelist and playwright, he died in Paris in 1925. His art unites graphic clarity, social observation and psychological enigma. The "Félix Vallotton" selection notably compares Manifestation and Assassination. His reading favors movement.

Vallotton removes the superfluous until a black man, a door or a look is enough to make visible the conflict hidden beneath ordinary life.