Félix Vallotton at the MET
His Dark Disquiet at the Met
Like no other artist of his time, Félix Vallotton chronicled the bourgeois of Paris in the late 1800s. His brazen, original approach, spareness, political leanings and an odd discomfort run throughout his art. We feel something is off, out of balance and out of step. He explores sexual yearnings and some of his pieces exude sexual tension and sexual intent. The exhibit Félix Vallotton: Painter of Disquiet opened this week at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
His diverse talents are being recognized in this exhibit which showcases 80 works of art from paintings and his major source of income, printmaking. “Vallotton’s depictions of French contemporary life at the turn of the century are packed with social and political metaphors,” said Max Hollein, Director of the Met. “From often mysterious and unsettling scenes of the bourgeois to bold images of city street life, his powerful narratives and striking compositions are entirely captivating to this day.” We find his work to be very engaging while holding a strangeness, an odd beckoning to us like some of David Lynch’s best cinematic scenes.
While Vallotton never spared his anarchist portrayal of the upper class, he married into their ranks in 1899. His marriage was into the famed Bernheim-Jeune family of art dealers. This brought Vallotton financial security and freedom, like a true upper class member, to do what he wanted to do most – for Vallotton it was only to paint. He no longer was financially dependent on printmaking. Was he absorbed, politically, into the opulent embrace of the class he scrutinized? Now, because of his marriage, he spent summers in Normandy and winters in Paris with his wife, Gabrielle, and her family. After years of throwing barbs at the bourgeois, was it good to be rich? We would have loved to have asked him.
