Author Description

Félix Vallotton is one of the leading artists of the turn of the twentieth century. Born at Lausanne, he was seventeen when he settled in Paris to attend the Académie Julian. His wood-engravings soon won him recognition. He frequented the circle of the Revue Blanche, was a friend of Vuillard and Bonnard, and became the "foreign Nabi" before developing into a fiercely independent painter. His art, immediately recognisable and so impossible to classify, does not break with tradition but instead overwhelms it with striking decorative effects and a palette combining the most dazzling, often clashing, occasionally unreal colors. Long-awaited by the international community, this catalogue raisonné in three volumes with a wealth of color illustrations, lists over 1,700 paintings, largely unpublished. The Nude reflects his maturity as an artist, along with the portrait, interiors, still lifes and the "composed landscapes". Preparatory drawings are frequently offered to throw light on the birth of the painting. Last, the critical apparatus is enhanced by the full reproduction of the manuscript version of the artist’s famous Livre de Raison. Begun in the 1970s by Maxime Vallotton, the artist’s nephew, the Catalogue raisonné was continued in the 1980 by Marina Ducrey within the Fondation Félix Vallotton, with the final backing of the Institut suisse pour l’étude de l’art (Swiss Institute for the Study of Art), at Lausanne and Zurich; it appears in its series Catalogues raisonnés d’artistes suisses. Volume I: The Painter; Volumes II and III: Catalogue raisonné. Text in French