La Modiste (The Milliner)
1894
Medium
woodcut on wove paper
Dimensions
plate: 18 x 22.6 cm (7 1/16 x 8 7/8 in.) sheet: 25.6 x 32.5 cm (10 1/16 x 12 13/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
Accession Number
1983.90.1
Art Historical Context
Félix Vallotton *La Modiste (The Milliner)* captures a quiet moment of everyday Parisian life in 1894. Created as a woodcut on wove paper, the print exemplifies Vallotton’s mastery of the medium during his association with the Nabis group. The bold contrasts of black and white, achieved through precise carving of the woodblock, distill the scene into simplified forms that evoke both intimacy and modernity. At the turn of the century, Vallotton helped revive woodcut as a serious artistic technique, drawing inspiration from Japanese ukiyo-e prints popular in Europe. His choice of subject—a mill...
About the Artist
Félix Vallotton
Félix Vallotton (1865–1925) was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, into a comfortable middle-class family, and moved to Paris in 1882 to enroll at the Académie Julian, where he studied under the portrait painter Jules Joseph Lefebvre and the history painter Gustave Boulanger. Paris would remain his home for the rest of his life, and he became a French citizen in 1900 following his marriage to the art ...