Lot Essay
During the 1890's, Vallotton was chiefly concerned with the psychological and formal interaction of figures set in an interior. After 1900, Vallotton responded to a classicizing influence which also had a profound impact on fellow Nabi artists such as Bernard, Denis and Sérusier, and the female nude began to emerge as his most important and frequent subject. References to Ingres, the great exemplar of classicism in French art from the mid-19th century onward, show up frequently in Vallotton's letters and journals during this period. However, although Vallotton admired Ingres's elegant sensuality and "probity of line", his nudes have an unadorned and modern look. "This summoning up of this master of the exaggerated linear arabesque is in fact an elaborate persiflage, disguising his own ironic and artificial reformation of reality. Vallotton derails Ingres' aestheticization of the female nude, his cultivated eroticism of form." (S. M. Newman, Félix Vallotton, New York, 1991 [Yale University Art Gallery exhibition catalogue], p. 166)
Ironically, even if Vallotton's nudes have a matter-of-fact presence that appears to owe some debt to early photography, he never shared Bonnard's or Vuillard's habit of using their "petit kodaks". His emphasis on linearity owes far more to 19th century academic traditions of draughtsmanship, which he transforms into a modern and psychologically charged sensibility.
Galerie Paul Valotton S.A., Lausanne, will include this painting in their forthcoming Vallotton catalogue raisonné.
Ironically, even if Vallotton's nudes have a matter-of-fact presence that appears to owe some debt to early photography, he never shared Bonnard's or Vuillard's habit of using their "petit kodaks". His emphasis on linearity owes far more to 19th century academic traditions of draughtsmanship, which he transforms into a modern and psychologically charged sensibility.
Galerie Paul Valotton S.A., Lausanne, will include this painting in their forthcoming Vallotton catalogue raisonné.