Félix Vallotton | Landscapes and seascapes

Vallotton's landscapes and seascapes avoided conventional views and techniques, and presented unusual viewpoints and perspectives.

The scene is sometimes seen from above, with the horizon very high in the picture, or without the sky being visible at all.

The forms are simplified, and the figures are often small and almost unrecognizable.

Felix-Vallotton | The Ball, 1899 | Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Felix Vallotton | Still life with gladioli, 1924

Félix Vallotton's still life paintings are characterized by their formal simplicity, striking compositions, and a cool, detached sensibility.

While still lifes were a minor subject for him earlier in his career, they became prominent in his work from around 1910 onwards.

In his later years, painting in his studio in Honfleur, Vallotton concentrated particularly on still lifes, particularly flowers, fruits and vegetables, very carefully arranged and painted with extreme precision.

Félix Vallotton | Figures and Portraits

Félix Edouard Vallotton (1865-1925) was a Swiss /French painter and printmaker associated with Les Nabis.

Vallotton was recognized as a very accomplished portrait painter, and painted portraits of many of the leading figures in the arts of his time.

His early work included a portrait of his fellow Nabi Édouard Vuillard.

The portraits of Vallotton featured both precision and a certain cold realism.

Alice Bailly | Cubist painter

Alice Bailly (1872-1938) was a radical Swiss painter, known for her interpretations on cubism, fauvism, her wool paintings, and her participation in the Dada movement.

In 1906, Bailly had settled in Paris where she befriended Juan Gris, Francis Picabia and Marie Laurencin, avant-garde modernist painters who influenced her works and her later life.

Léopold Robert | Romantic genre painter

Louis Léopold Robert (1794-1835) was a Swiss painter.

He was born at La Chaux-de-Fonds (Neuchâtel) in Switzerland, but left his native place with the engraver Jean Girardet at the age of sixteen for Paris.

He was on the eve of obtaining the grand prix for engraving when the events of 1815 blasted his hopes, for Neuchâtel was restored to Prussia, and Robert was struck off the list of competitors as a foreigner.

Gwenneth Barth-White | Pastel painter

American-born Swiss international artist Gwenneth Barth-White is a Maître Pastelliste of the 150-year-old Société des Pastellistes de France and has served as its Vice President for many years.

She's a Master Pastelist of the Pastel Society of America, and a Signature Member of the Portrait Society of America, where she has served as faculty.

Her work has been exhibited in Geneva, Gstaad, New York, Toronto, Paris, and in many French and American venues.

Hermann Hesse | In the Fog / Nella Nebbia / Im Nebel

Strano vagare nella nebbia!

È solo ogni cespuglio ed ogni pietra,

né gli alberi si scorgono tra loro,

ognuno è solo.

Pieno di amici mi appariva il mondo

quando era la mia vita ancora chiara;

adesso che la nebbia cala

non ne vedo più alcuno.

Julius Von Leypold | Wanderer in the Storm, 1835 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Giovanni Segantini: ".. Amè piace fare all'amore colle mie concessioni…"

• "… Sarò felice quel giorno che noi in un eletto drappello combatteremo uniti contro la volgarità per la bellezza del senso del colore, per la luce che dà vita alla natura, per la purezza viva e ardente della forma di tutte le cose che dà all’opere nostre quell’armonia ideale dell’anima che si dona all’opera per vivere in essa".

• "… Se si volesse entrare a discorrere seriamente d'arte, per farsi ben capire ed evitare equivoci, sarebbe necessario far precedere un breve trattato di psicologia (nientemeno!). Che altro è l'arte, l'arte bella, vera, elevata, se non l'immagine fotografica, il misuratore che segna il grado di perfezione dell'anima umana?"