Vallotton Forever. The Retrospective

• 1865. Félix Vallotton was born in Lausanne into a Protestant family. His father, Adrien Vallotton, owned a pharmacy and later a chocolate factory.
• 1882. At 16, went up to Paris and settled permanently there. Studied art at the Académie Julian under the academic painters Jules Lefebvre and Gustave Boulanger.
• 1885. Exhibited at the Salon des artistes français. Initial works in oil were portraits and display his clear preference for modernity and realism.
• 1891. Began working in wood engraving. An instant sensation thanks to the radicalness of his innovative style grounded in the abrupt juxtaposition of black and white areas on the print. His anarchist sympathies are seen in his critical view and depiction of social repression.
• 1893. Joined the Nabis, an avant-garde art movement with a symbolist bent. The group favoured line, the clear outlining of compositional elements and blocks of flat unmodelled colours for their evocative power. Befriended fellow painter Édouard Vuillard.
• 1894. Began working as a press caricaturist and draughtsman.
• 1895. Taken on as the official illustrator of La Revue blanche, to which he would contribute caricatures and drawings until 1902.
• 1896. Autoportrait à l’âge de vingt ans (1885) acquired by Lausanne’s Musée des Beaux-Arts, his first painting to enter a public collection.
• 1897. Small-format Nabi paintings focus on depicting both interi-ors and outdoor scenes peopled with female nudes.
• 1899. His talent was now widely recognised, a fortunate circumstance reinforced by the financial security of his marriage to Gabrielle Rodrigues-Henriques, daughter of the art dealer Alexandre Bernheim.
• 1900. Became a French citizen whilst retaining his Swiss nationality.
• 1903. La Revue blanche ceased publication and the Nabis went their separate ways. First solo show at the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery. First sale of a painting to the French government at the opening of the Salon d’automne, which Vallotton was a founding member of.
• 1904. Achieved his ambition of devoting himself solely to painting. His future pictures would affirm his desire to return to realism and the traditional genres, portraiture, the nude, landscapes, still lifes, and history painting. First large-format nudes.
• 1908. Made the acquaintance of the collectors Hedy and Arthur Hahnloser. Based in Winterthur, the couple promoted his work in Swiss Germany. Took up a post at the Académie Ranson, Paris, and would continue teaching there until 1918.
• 1909. First solo show in Switzerland, at Zurich’s Künstlerhaus. Began spending summers in Honfleur, where he developed his conception of the ‘composed landscape’, a form of painting he saw as ‘freed from all literal respect for nature’.
• 1910. First solo show at Eugène Druet’s gallery. Druet was now his official dealer in Paris.
• 1912. Refused the Legion of Honour along with his fellow artists Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, and Ker-Xavier Roussel.
• 1913. Travel in Russia, to Saint Petersburg and Moscow. Took part in the Armory Show (New York, Chicago, Boston).
• 1914. The war brutally jeopardised his success and plunged him into depression. Tried to enlist but was rejected because of his age. First solo show at the Lausanne branch of the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery which his brother Paul had opened in 1913.
• 1917. Requested an artistic mission from the army and was sent to the Champagne and Argonne fronts. Back in his studio, painted numerous landscapes inspired by the devasted regions.
• 1920. First stay in Cagnes in search of a milder climate. Would spend every subsequent winter there until the end of his life.
• 1925. Entered a clinic for cancer surgery. Died three days later, the day after his 60th birthday.

The Fondation Félix Vallotton is dedicated to documenting, researching, and educating the public about the life and work of the painter, engraver, illustrator and writer Félix Vallotton. Created in 1998, the centre found a permanent home in 2019 at Lausanne’s Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts (MCBA). Thanks to public, private and institutional support, the centre has published several reference works, the catalogues raisonnés Félix Vallotton (1865-1925), L’œuvre peint (2005), and Félix Vallotton illustrateur(2025), as well as Félix Vallotton. Critique d’art (2012). Beyond its research activities, the Fondation Félix Vallotton has jointly curated several international exhibitions to date, including Félix Vallotton. Le feu sous la glace (Paris, Amsterdam, Tokyo, 2013-2014), Félix Vallotton. Painter of Disquiet (London, New York, 2019-2020), two retrospectives that proved a success with critics and the public alike.

Website: felixvallotton.ch