prints and printmakers

prints and printmakers
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Hiv and punishments
Félix Vallotton (1865-1925) was born in Lausanne, which is now home to the Fondation Félix Vallotton. He moved to Paris in 1882 to study under Jules Joseph Lefebvre and Gustave Boulanger at the Académie Julian. In 1891 Félix Vallotton made his first woodcut, an art to which he devoted much of his time for the next decade, inspired by the Japanese ukiyo-e prints that were such a formative influence on the Impressionists, post-Impressionists, and Symbolists. Also in the 1890s Vallotton was a key member of the post-Impressionist alliance known as Les Nabis; he was particularly close to Édouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard, and Maurice Denis. As a printmaker, Félix Vallotton is best-known for his woodcuts, but he also produced some powerful lithographs, in particular the 23 original colour lithographs that comprise the 1902 Crimes et Châtiments issue of the anarchist satirical journal L'Assiette au Beurre, protesting oppression by all forms of authority: the state, church, bosses, parents, sexual predators, and especially the police.
A note on the back cover tells us that "The current number presents many innovations. It is lithographed, it is only printed on the recto, and its format is larger than ordinary issues of L'Assiette au Beurre." It is worth noting that this was the only issue of which this can be said. Paul Balluriau did illustrate an issue with original lithographs, but they were printed on recto and verso. In practically all other issues, the illustrations (even those by major figures such as Kees van Dongen) were reproduced drawings rather than original prints. I think L'Assiette au Beurre was right to accord this extra respect to these marvellous lithographs by Félix Vallotton, which are angry, powerful, funny, and always drawn with the most expressive of lines, and the subtlest use of tiny patches of colour. I'll let them speak for themselves, with the original captions and my free translations (and of course will be grateful for any improvements to these).