Succession F. Vallotton, Paris

Galerie Jacques Rodrigues-Henriques, Paris

Collection Jean-Arthur Fontaine, Paris (1930)

Vente Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Me Bellier, Collection Jean-Arthur Fontaine, 2 décembre 1936, lot 46 (titré Nu agenouillé)

Collection Paul Nivard, France, puis par descendance

Vente Paris, Artcurial, 4 juin 2024, lot 1

Acquis lors de cette vente par l'actuel propriétaire

Collection Louis Grandchamp des Raux

Paris, Galerie Jacques Rodrigues-Henriques, Exposition rétrospective d’œuvres inédites de Félix Vallotton (1865-1925), mars 1928, n°41 (titré Nu de dos, accroupi)

F. Fosca, "La collection Jean-Arthur Fontaine (premier article)", in L’Amour de l’art, Paris, 11°année, n°4, avril 1930, p.167

M.Ducrey, Félix Vallotton, l’œuvre peint, catalogue raisonné, tome III, Fondation Félix Vallotton, Lausanne, Institut suisse pour l'étude de l'art, Zürich, 5 Continents, Milan, 2005, n°1265, reproduit en noir et blanc p.697

A painter and writer, an artist impossible to categorize, Félix Vallotton – who joined the French group of Les Nabis in 1892 – occupies a unique place at the dawn of 20th century modernism.

From the turn of the century onwards, he embarked upon a path of his own: that of a cold realism, the influence of which would prove decisive for Italian Pittura Metafisica (Metaphysical Art) as well as for Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) in Germany and Switzerland (ill. 1).

After 1900, Vallotton turned his attention increasingly to the female nude, which became the central theme of his painting (ill. 2). He began with a series of bathers and studies of women at their “toilette”, before going on to produce, in the years that followed, large-scale allegorical compositions.

His nudes fall into different categories: allegorical, historical and portraits. In this work, dated 1918, the nude model has her back to the viewer, allowing her to remain anonymous. Although her identity is concealed, Vallotton nevertheless imbues her with a distinctive presence through the power of her silhouette. Her hourglass figure particularly highlights the natural beauty of her body. The sole figure in a minimalist setting, she appears to be animated by a slight movement. This tension initiates the beginning of a narrative, through the slight turn of her head to the left, her right foot bent and her right hand resting, as if she were about to suddenly stand up and turn around.

Her pale skin, enhanced by green tones that highlight the contours, contributes to the modelling of the body. This is reminiscent of the work of Kees Van Dongen, who embraced the Fauvist style that Vallotton had rejected. The body stands out against a two-tone background – bright blue for the wall and ochre for the floor – while her golden blonde hair creates a striking contrast with the background. By choosing this viewpoint, Vallotton places the viewer in the position of an observer or a voyeur, confronted with this figure who is at once distant and unsettling.

After 1908, the work of Félix Vallotton, particularly his nudes, appears to foreshadow hyperrealism (ill. 3). His art relies on a striking contrast between technical precision and an emotion that is intentionally contained within stillness. It is a repressed, cold and rigid art, whose universe rests upon a dichotomy: interior and exterior, the viewer or the viewed, or, as here, subject and object. Painter of disillusion and dissimulation, Vallotton is not looking to reproduce the visible world but to unmask its contradictions.

Behind the silent surface of his canvases, he becomes the chronicler of the unsaid, translating the psychological and moral complexity of his time.

Fig. 1 : Félix Vallotton, Étude pour Femme assise de dos, 1915, Mine de plomb et estompe sur page de carnet

Fig. 2 : Félix Vallotton, Baigneuse aux mouettes, 1919, huile sur toile

Fig. 3 : Félix Vallotton, Baigneuse assise sur le sable, 1916, huile sur toile