Félix Vallotton was a Swiss-French painter, and a masterful one. In the late nineteenth century, when he was coming into his own, Vallotton was a member of Les Nabis, an avant-garde group who, among other things, were influenced by Japanese woodcuts. Vallotton was a maker of woodcuts himself.
Of course this is not a woodcut, but a tempera painting. Still, I think the influence shows. The textures, the way things are placed.
Of course color is a big part of this story as well. The bright passionate red of the tablecloth. The warm peach wallpaper. And off to the side are a man and a woman in darkness, him talking and her not looking him in the eye. These models are not eager to meet the viewer and have their business known. There's a neat restraint here.
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It was mentioned in wikipedia that while in Switzerland Vallotton first saw images of Hokusai's work so naturally, as an oldtime fan of ukiyo-e, the next place I visited this afternoon was the wiki entry about Japanese wood-block printing. I could happily spend hours gazing at those exquisite prints. Hokusai was arguably the best and most prolific but others who came after produced some fine work too.
That's very much the understated look Vallotton took to heart. Once noticed it's easy to see how he was influenced by the rich yet elegant pallettes of the Japanese masters. Restraint is a good word for his style. Of course, there was a lot of mutual influence going on in the late 19th century between the French and the Japanese.
While checking out people who were influential in that period, I noticed it was a ceramicist, Félix Bracquemond, who recognised the beauty of the Hokusai woodcuts used as packing around a shipment of Japanese china, a discovery which helped change the look of late 19th-century art.
As far as the mood of the couple in the Red Room is concerned it's interesting to note the exhibit of Velloton's paintings at the Met was called 'The Painter of Disquiet'.
No argument about Hokusai. He has a few pictures that everyone knows, even if they don't know his name, like "The Great Wave Off Kanagawa." But there are many others that show him as being an absolute master. He's been a tremendous influence in the West as well as the East, and Vallotton was wise in paying attention to him.
It's true that there was a good deal of influence both ways in the late 19th/early 20th century. I like to think that the peoples of both regions started at least wondering about how they might be equals at that time. French and other artists started redefining the kind of vantage point from which they drew and painted, making things more fluid and flexible. That's partly the result of being able to see more perspectives in a short amount of time thanks to trains, but I think ukiyo-e art had an effect too.
Bracquemond was a painter and etcher in addition to being a ceramicist, but his ceramics certainly catch the eye. Clearly he had a very discerning eye as well.
"Disquiet" is an apt word. Paintings liek this probably employed models, but he gives the impression of being a sharp observer as well.
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