Père

Art Historical Context

Félix Vallotton’s 1894 lithograph *Père* offers a quietly powerful meditation on family and identity. A Swiss artist who settled in Paris, Vallotton was then associated with the Nabis circle, whose members sought to bring art into daily life through simplified forms and emotional resonance. The title, French for “Father,” suggests a portrait or domestic scene that distills personal relationships into a spare, graphic image. Printed in black on light brown wove paper, the work highlights lithography’s distinctive qualities: rich velvety blacks, crisp lines, and the subtle warmth of the paper itself. In the 1890s this medium allowed artists to reach wider audiences while experimenting with bold contrasts and flattened space, qualities Vallotton explored throughout his printmaking career. Measuring roughly 29 by 37 centimeters, the sheet invites close, contemplative viewing. Now part of the National Gallery of Art’s collection through the generosity of The Atlas Foundation, *Père* preserves Vallotton’s sensitive exploration of human connection at the close of the nineteenth century.

About the Artist

Félix Vallotton · 1865–1925

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 ...