More about Félix Vallotton

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Félix Vallotton married the sister of an art dealer and never worried about selling his stuff.


He was also part of the Les Nabis group with his friends Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard, and Édouard Vuillard. Nabi means "prophet" in Hebrew so that probably tells you a little bit about what these guys thought of themselves. They also liked to end their letters with E.T.P.M.V. et M.P., meaning "En ta paume, mon verbe et ma pensée" ('In the palm of your hand, my word and my thoughts.') Couldn't they just say 'sincerely' or 'cheers?'


Vallotton thought himself a writer, creating eight plays and three novels. Two plays went to production and sucked. His semi-autobiographical novel, "La Vie meurtrière (The Murderous Life)", was published after his death and talks about his awful upbringing in a middle-class family that allowed him to pursue art. So tough.


Vallotton was extremely productive (though not as much as Pablo Picasso) making approximately 1,700 paintings, 200 prints, hundreds of drawings and several sculptures.

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Here is what Wikipedia says about Félix Vallotton

Félix Édouard Vallotton (

French pronunciation: [feliks edwaʁ valɔtɔ̃]; December 28, 1865 – December 29, 1925) was a Swiss and French painter and printmaker associated with the group of artists known as Les Nabis. He was an important figure in the development of the modern woodcut. He painted portraits, landscapes, nudes, still lifes, and other subjects in an unemotional, realistic style.

His earliest paintings were influenced by Holbein and Ingres. He developed a simpler style during his association with Les Nabis during the 1890s, and produced woodcuts which brought him international recognition. Characterized by broad masses of black and white with minimal detail, they include street scenes, bathers, portraits, and a series of ten interiors titled Intimités (Intimacies) that portray charged domestic encounters between men and women. He produced few prints after 1901, and concentrated instead on painting. His later paintings include highly finished portraits and nudes, and landscapes painted from memory.

He was also active as a writer. He published art criticism during the 1890s, and his novel La Vie meurtrière (The Murderous Life) was published posthumously.

Check out the full Wikipedia article about Félix Vallotton