Why This Artist Has Taught Me So Much About Visual Perception

The aesthetic marvels of Felix Vallotton

Red Peppers (1915) by Félix Vallotton. Oil on canvas. 63.5 × 72.5 cm. Kunstmuseum Solothurn, Switzerland

Dear Reader,

Recently, my attention has been hooked on the paintings of Felix Vallotton, a remarkable Swiss-French painter who flourished during the transitional years at the turn of the 20th century.

His paintings seem to do what all great artworks do: they shift one’s sense of perception.

The Red Chamber (1898) by Félix Vallotton. Tempera on board. 50 × 68.5 cm. Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland

Take the painting above: The Red Chamber, painted by Vallotton in 1898. It is all about the clarity of outlines, the interaction of shapes and the importance of the spaces between them.

Notice how the shades of the tablecloth and two armchairs closely match the colours of the carpet, wallpaper and curtains. Foreground and background become merged, and shadows take on an aesthetic definition of their own.

In Vallotton’s paintings, he often used similar colours where other artists may have used contrasting ones. The interior space of the living room is thereby compressed, flattened and turned into a patchwork of interacting shapes. The taxonomy of space is revised, and a new sense of actuality is revealed.

In this way, Vallotton’s compositions have added to my awareness of form in everyday life. Now, whenever I step out of my house, I see the world in a slightly altered and enriched way.

Let me explain further…