The Swiss Félix Vallotton began to study at a private art academy in Paris at the age of seventeen. Already in 1885 he was represented with three works in the established Paris Salon. He initially dealt with prints and woodcuts. His artistic life was marked by financial hardship, until he married the wealthy widow Gabrielle Rodrigues-Henriques, daughter of the Parisian art dealer Bernheim. During the following years he studied the works of famous artists in Holland, Italy and Belgium.
Two years before his first solo exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zürich in 1909, Vallotton painted the portrait titled "Le chapeau violet". In strong violet color shades dominated the feather hat on the high-set blonde hair of a woman who seems to feel visibly uncomfortable. Her gaze goes into the void, turned inside, downright cool. With both hands she holds her light shirt tight over her left breast. The painter here clearly presents his impression of the female sex, whom he laments as "difficult". Thus, the model seems to elude the wishes of the artist, seems unapproachable.
Perhaps that is why Vallotton focused on the reproduction of the material. The magnificently designed hat in its rich color may compensate the viewer for the undercooled presence of the portrayed. The late paintings reveal a stylistic change, probably based on illness and the near end of life. These are images that are similar to the later surrealist works of de Chirico and that already herald the magical realism.
© Meisterdrucke