Nathalia Brodskaia

Julian Barnes introduced me to the Swiss artist Felix Vallotton in his wonderful book of essays on art, [b: Keeping an Eye Open|22709886|Keeping an Eye Open Essays on Art|Julian Barnes|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1557639714l/22709886._SY75_.jpg|42233661]. Vallotton was a member of the artistic group calling themselves "the Nabis," a "post-Post-Impressionist" cadre of artists who revered Gauguin, and adhered to the idea that before a painting became a show more horse, a landscape, or a nude, it was a flat surface with colors arranged in certain ways. Their paintings are drenched in colors, patterns, and light, and they didn't stop with paintings: they did decorative screens, posters, playing cards, anything they could decorate. Vallotton was also a master of woodcuts and graphic illustrations: often brooding, enigmatic images in stark black and white - he made his living that way, until returning to painting. His series of sunsets are stunning variations of color, atmosphere, light, water, and pattern. He also, it must be said, for a deep-dyed admirer of Ingres, painted some of the most truly awful female nudes ever committed. A strange bird.

So off I went to find a book with more information, more pictures, and this was literally the only one in my entire metropolitan area library system. In a spindly sans serif typeface that was very uncomfortable to read, the Russian art historian author plods through Vallotton's life, friends, letters, and practices. There are lots of lush color reproductions - and almost none of them are discussed at any length in the text. It's as though the publisher hired the author to write a bio, and then randomly chose a bunch of paintings to sprinkle throughout the book - in roughly chronological order, but with no relationship to the text on the pages. Two of the nudes grace the front and back covers, and while I suspect Vallotton of having spied through my keyhole at 4 AM when I am feeding the cats for the latter, they do him no favors. Only one of the gorgeous sunsets appears, and they are barely mentioned. I liked looking at the images, but wanted to learn more about them and did not. Overall, a very disappointing experience. I will keep trying.

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Being a survey of the art of the diffuse movement which bridged the gap between 19th-century romanticism and the expressionism which was to come. The selection of the art is quirky and the even stranger decision was made for most of the accompanying commentary to be surrealist poetry.

Not widely publicized painter...good history and examples of his work