Vibrant Vallotton

Before I take you inside No 10, I must remind you of a post in May: Les Nabis.

Here is an extract: “some of the members’ names are familiar: Bonnard, Vuillard, Maurice Denis, Sérusier, Ranson and Valloton”. Well, sorry, I fibbed. I had never heard of Denis, Ranson or Valloton and I even misspelt Félix Vallotton’s name.

If I may digress, I have always had artistic ambition never realised. At Eton I diligently painted backdrops for our House plays – I seldom got a role in the play. I also was a pretty hopeless potter. But at my prep school in Dublin my creativity sank to the depth of Loch Ness. We used various sharp instruments of differing widths to make incisions into a Lino tablet. The resulting Lino-cut was supposed to make a pleasing Christmas card. I cut my fingers and chunks of Lino would unexpectedly fly off.

Félix Vallotton was a master of making woodcuts that he could sell to illustrate books. The RA are exhibiting them until the end of this month. They are technically proficient but, let’s face it, boring as something boring beginning with B. However, his oils are startling. Here is the first in the RA show.

It evokes a Dutch Still Life. FV looked back in his early years. There is striking portrait of a maid coming into a room with a tray for an invalid. On the bedside table are medicine bottles. On one bottle a reflection of a window is visible. A technique used to great effect by Dutch painters. Many significant artists learn from their predecessors and, if they are truly great, inspire their successors. FV didn’t have the money to extend his creative boundaries. With considerable finesse he made woodcuts and painted in oils. Only when he had a rich wife could he start to paint for himself and the results are arresting.

These pictures and others evoke Edward Hopper, the “vibrating”colours used by David Hicks, David Hockney and you will think of some more. An eye-catching ensemble, worth an hour. The RA says – “ he created paintings of extraordinary visual intensity – enigmatic narratives, magnetic still-life’s, unsettling nudes and radiant landscapes”. So here’s a radiant landscape.