Woodcut, L’Irréparable (Serie der Intimités X),

1898

Félix Vallotton moved to Paris from Lausanne in 1882 to train as an artist at the Académie Julian. Initially, he earned his living with portraits and engravings and as an art critic. In 1892, following the success of his first woodcuts, he became a member of the Nabis, a group dedicated not only to the fine arts but also to the applied arts that cultivated a decorative style inspired by Japanese colored woodcuts. Vallotton’s woodcuts—which poke fun at people in their everyday lives using reduced forms and sharp contrasts—undoubtedly owe their flatness and emphasis on contours to the influence of the Nabis. However, they are also defined by realism, as well as by the precise outlines of the German Renaissance masters, whom Vallotton so greatly admired. The print L’Irréparable from the Intimités series demonstrates his ability to achieve maximum impact with restricted means. The relationship of the no-longer-young couple seems to have reached an impasse. They are trapped in a black expanse, which, at the top, assumes the shape of the sofa on which they are sitting. Only their sad faces and isolated hands shine out from the darkness. The hands recreate the undulating silhouette of the sofa, which is repeated once again in the ghostly fish motif of the palm tree planter. This image, along with nine other prints from the Intimités series, appeared in the publication La Revue blanche, the mouthpiece of the Nabis, for which Vallotton produced numerous illustrations. (Barbara Junod)