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
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.jpg "Nude Stretched out on a Piece of Cloth by Felix Edouard Vallotton")
.jpg "Interior with Woman at the Piano by Felix Edouard Vallotton")
.jpg "The Turkish Bath by Felix Edouard Vallotton")
.jpg "On the Beach, 1899 by Felix Edouard Vallotton")
.jpg "The Saleve and the Lake, 1900 by Felix Edouard Vallotton")
.jpg "Nude in blue fabric by Felix Edouard Vallotton")
.jpg "At the Dressing Table, 1911 by Felix Edouard Vallotton")
.jpg "Basket of tangerines and bananas, 1923. by Felix Edouard Vallotton")
.jpg "The Winner, 1898 by Felix Edouard Vallotton")
.jpg "Three Bathers by Felix Edouard Vallotton")
.jpg "Paris Opera programme, including works by August Strindberg, 1894 by Felix Edouard Vallotton")
