VVFA Modern | Artists | Louis Valtat (French, 1869 - 1952)
An independent and inventive painter, Louis Valtat is known as one of the leaders and founders of the Fauvist movement. Born in 1869, Valtat moved to Paris at the age of seventeen to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Gustave Boulanger, Jules Lefebvre and Benjamin Constant. His training continued at the Académie Julian, where he met the young Albert André and Pierre Bonnard. The influence of the Impressionist and Modern painters weighed more heavily upon Valtat and his friends than the academic principles of the Ecole and Académie Julian, and at the age of 24 he participated in the Salon des Independents of 1893. Further immersing himself within avant-garde circles, the following year Valtat collaborated with Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Albert André in creating the décor for the theater "L'Oeuvre" at the request of Lugné Poë. He quickly became involved with the most influential groups of modern artists, such as Auguste Renoir, Paul Signac, Georges d'Espagnat, and Maximilien Luce.
Valtat suffered from tuberculosis, and thus spent most winters and falls along the Mediterranean cost in Banyuls, Anthéor and Saint Tropez. Often, he and his family would visit Renoir at the Maison de la Poste in Cagnes and Signac in Bollée. It was during these times along the Mediterranean that Valtat's use of color became of great concern to him and he truly began to express his Fauvist tendencies, particularly in his seascapes.
Valtat was a very complete artist in subject matter, painting nudes, landscapes, portraits and still lifes. Yet, it is his still lifes that are his most successful and desirable works. Most of his florals are fauvist works with bold intense coloration. Fauvist principles required a total liberation of local color in favor of palette of unmixed color used straight from the tube, often applied with firm, even violent brushwork. Forms are simplified and flattened, giving precedence to a patterned, decorative surface. Although Valtat had painted in this manner for several years, it wasn't until 1905 when his dealer, Ambroise Vollard, sent one of his paintings to the Salon d'Automne, that the term “Fauvism” came into use and caused a controversy in the art world. The moniker "fauve," meaning "wild beasts," was coined by the critic Louis Vauxcelles to describe the work of many of the artists exhibiting that year, including Matisse, Vlaminck, Derain, Roualt, Marguet, Manguin, Dongen Friesz, Puy and Valtat.
Museums
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux
Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Chambéry
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseilles
Museum of Modern Art, New York
The State Hermitage Museum, Saint-Petersburg
Musée de l’Annonciade, Saint-Tropez
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
Fondation Bemberg, Toulouse
Musée des Augustins, Toulouse
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Troyes
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL
Valtat suffered from tuberculosis, and thus spent most winters and falls along the Mediterranean cost in Banyuls, Anthéor and Saint Tropez. Often, he and his family would visit Renoir at the Maison de la Poste in Cagnes and Signac in Bollée. It was during these times along the Mediterranean that Valtat's use of color became of great concern to him and he truly began to express his Fauvist tendencies, particularly in his seascapes.
Valtat was a very complete artist in subject matter, painting nudes, landscapes, portraits and still lifes. Yet, it is his still lifes that are his most successful and desirable works. Most of his florals are fauvist works with bold intense coloration. Fauvist principles required a total liberation of local color in favor of palette of unmixed color used straight from the tube, often applied with firm, even violent brushwork. Forms are simplified and flattened, giving precedence to a patterned, decorative surface. Although Valtat had painted in this manner for several years, it wasn't until 1905 when his dealer, Ambroise Vollard, sent one of his paintings to the Salon d'Automne, that the term “Fauvism” came into use and caused a controversy in the art world. The moniker "fauve," meaning "wild beasts," was coined by the critic Louis Vauxcelles to describe the work of many of the artists exhibiting that year, including Matisse, Vlaminck, Derain, Roualt, Marguet, Manguin, Dongen Friesz, Puy and Valtat.
Museums
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux
Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Chambéry
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseilles
Museum of Modern Art, New York
The State Hermitage Museum, Saint-Petersburg
Musée de l’Annonciade, Saint-Tropez
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
Fondation Bemberg, Toulouse
Musée des Augustins, Toulouse
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Troyes
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL
