FÉLIX VALLOTTON | ETUDE POUR L'ONDÉE, PL.II (EXPOSITION UNIVERSELLE)

Paul Vallotton Estate, Lausanne

The Vallotton Collection (sold: Sotheby's, Zürich, 4th June 1997, lot 147)

Collection Albin Schram, Switzerland (purchased at the above sale)

Thence by descent to the present owners

Maxime Vallotton and Charles Georg, Félix Vallotton, Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre gravé et lithographié, Geneva, 1972, no. 204, illustrated p. 227

This exceptional ink drawing by Félix Vallotton shows Parisians rushing to shelter from the rain. The composition is part of a series of six drawings, entitled L’Exposition Universelle, depicting scenes from the April 1900 World’s Fair in Paris – the event which enshrined Paris as the cultural epicenter of the world. Typical of Vallotton’s wry view of contemporary society, he punctures the grandeur of the occasion by depicting scenes of prosaic activity. These six sketches were turned into a celebrated series of woodcuts; this image exists in its print form in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.