Disguised social critique
Vallotton’s prints mostly depict daily life in Paris. He was especially fascinated by the metropolitan phenomenon of the crowd, but he also showed more intimate subjects in domestic interiors.
The decorative surface of his work frequently concealed a powerful element of social critique. He held up a mirror to his contemporaries and confronted them — lightened by a dash of humour — with issues such as oppression, mass consumption and the hypocrisy of marriage.
Félix Vallotton, First, Salute... (Salue d'abord...) from Crimes et châtiments, special issue of the journal L'Assiette au beurre (1 March 1902), 1902
Félix Vallotton, Fireworks (Feu d'artifice), 1900
Félix Vallotton, The Lie (Le mensonge) from the series Intimités, 1898
The perfect woodcut
Vallotton made over 120 woodcuts between 1891 and 1901.
He felt that with his impressive series Intimités — ten prints illustrating the age-old power struggle between men and women — he had achieved the perfect woodcut in terms of subject matter, style, and technique.
It was now time for the new challenge of painting. Vallotton returned to the woodcut one last time in 1915 with the series C’est la Guerre.
Further reading
- Maxime Vallotton, Charles Goerg, Felix Vallotton. Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre gravé et lithographie, Geneva 1972
- Sasha M. Newman et al., Felix Vallotton, New York 1991
- Marina Ducrey, Fleur Roos Rosa de Carvalho, Nienke Bakker et al., Félix Vallotton. Het vuur onder het ijs, Amsterdam 2014