Print Fanciers
Medium
Woodcut in black on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 18.5 × 25.3 cm (7 5/16 × 10 in.); Sheet: 25.1 × 32.7 cm (9 15/16 × 12 7/8 in.)
Classification
woodcut
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
44446
Art Historical Context
### Print Fanciers by Félix Edouard Vallotton Step into the refined world of 1890s Paris with *Print Fanciers*, a striking 1892 woodcut by Swiss-born artist Félix Edouard Vallotton. Printed in bold black ink on cream wove paper (image 18.5 × 25.3 cm), this intimate scene captures art enthusiasts closely examining prints, a clever nod to the burgeoning collector culture of the fin-de-siècle. Vallotton, a key figure in the Nabis movement, revolutionized woodcuts by treating them as fine art rather than mere illustration, blending Japanese ukiyo-e influences with crisp, modern precision. The wo...
About the Artist
Félix Edouard Vallotton · 1865–1925
Félix Edouard Vallotton (1865–1925) was a Swiss-French painter and printmaker whose deceptively spare imagery concealed a penetrating psychological acuity and a gift for formal invention. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, he moved to Paris at the age of seventeen to study at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, quickly immersing himself in the city's vital avant-garde scene. By the 1890s he had beco...