Felix Vallotton

Félix Vallotton (1865–1925) was a Swiss-born French painter and printmaker whose incisive, often enigmatic work bridged the Symbolist movement, Post-Impressionism and the emerging aesthetics of modernism.

Born in Lausanne, Vallotton moved to Paris in 1882 to study at the Académie Julian, where he encountered the avant-garde currents that would shape his career. He became closely associated with the Nabis, a group of post-Impressionist artists including Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard, sharing their interest in decorative flatness, expressive colour and psychological depth.

Vallotton first gained critical attention for his woodcuts, which revolutionised the medium in the 1890s. Stripped of decorative detail, these stark black-and-white prints — such as those in the series Intimités (1898) — offered a modern visual language that captured scenes of urban life, domestic tension and social alienation with biting clarity. Their graphic boldness and emotional ambiguity had a profound influence on early 20th-century printmaking, notably on German Expressionists.

In painting, Vallotton developed a singular style marked by flattened perspectives, cool tonalities and a disquieting stillness. He frequently explored bourgeois interiors, female nudes and landscapes with a detached, almost clinical eye. His later works became more symbolist and introspective, often imbuing seemingly mundane subjects with psychological unease and subtle narrative tension.

Naturalised as a French citizen in 1900, Vallotton served as a war artist during the First World War, producing a powerful series of woodcuts and paintings reflecting on the devastation. His work is held in major international collections, including the Musée d'Orsay, the Kunsthaus Zürich and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.