Louis Valtat

Born into a wealthy family in northern France, Louis Valtat studied in Paris, first at the École des Beaux-Arts and later at the Académie Julian, where he met Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard. His paintings initially reflected his studies of van Gogh and Pointillism, before his art was impacted by contact with the “Nabis” group of artists. His characteristic features were black contours and more compact fields of colour, applied with a wide paintbrush, in shades that differed from the actual subject at hand. His paintings of genre scenes, still lifes and landscapes were increasingly dominated by a vibrant range of colours. Valtat went on long trips through France and Italy, meeting numerous other artists, including Pierre Auguste Renoir, Paul Signac and Aristide Maillol. In 1903 and 1905 he took part in exhibitions at the newly founded “Salon d'Automne” in Paris. The 1905 exhibition marked the birth of Fauvism, a name which was coined on this occasion by the art critic Louis Vauxcelles. Although Valtat received recognition alongside Henri Matisse and others through this exhibition, he was never really part of Fauvism, and his attitude towards its artistic principles was of a more moderate and indeed preparatory nature. During this period an important disseminator of Valtat's works was the art dealer Ambroise Vollard. Later, in 1948, Valtat had to give up painting due to blindness, and his oeuvre received historical recognition through numerous retrospectives.