Felix Vallotton | Still life with gladioli, 1924

Félix Vallotton's still life paintings are characterized by their formal simplicity, striking compositions, and a cool, detached sensibility.

While still lifes were a minor subject for him earlier in his career, they became prominent in his work from around 1910 onwards.

In his later years, painting in his studio in Honfleur, Vallotton concentrated particularly on still lifes, particularly flowers, fruits and vegetables, very carefully arranged and painted with extreme precision.

He used very vivid colors and was especially meticulous in painting the reflections of light on the fruits, vegetables and ceramic vases.

He wrote in his journal on August 13, 1919: "More than ever the object amuses me; the perfection of an egg; the moisture on a tomato; the striking (martelage) of a hortensia flower; these are the problems for me to resolve".

Félix Vallotton | Nature morte aux glaïeuls (Still Life With Gladioli), 1924

"I am deep in a still life, the ordinary expedient of bad days, but by applying myself I manage to save the day.

[…] I keep up the still lifes and go from flowers to fruits, and from fruits to victuals; I’m not there yet and the work makes me take note of a series of little problems whose solutions I fruitfully amuse myself by trying to find", Félix Vallotton wrote in his diary on July 9, 1919.

Félix Vallotton | Nature morte aux glaïeuls (Still Life With Gladioli), 1924 | © Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne

Still lifes came to the fore in Vallotton’s oeuvre from 1910 on.

As a testing ground for shapes and forms, the genre let him explore composition.

Bouquets of flowers are combined with various objects - in this case, a book and a print or brush and ink landscape.

A tense dialogue arises between the sharp-cornered squares, the supple lines of the flowers, and the curves of the vase.

The colour of the petals harmonises with the table cloth, both at odds with the rest of the palette, while the table and vase stand slightly off-centre.

The dab of pale paint on the neck and rim of the vase reflects the light source, but Vallotton then takes some liberties with the shadows, sketching some in and leaving others out.

The painting is structured by a series of triangles created by the arrangement of objects, shadows and light.

The highly composed still life, combining flowers with objects symbolising art and intellectual endeavours, and the Dutch-style rug on the table seem to gesture towards vanitas paintings: Vallotton was by now an old man in his twilight years. | Source: © Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne