137

  • Les Pauvres Oisifs! (The Poor Idlers!)

  • 1896
  • Félix Vallotton (Swiss 1865-1925)
  • Chromotypograph, cover for Le Rire, 25 April 1896
  • 22.4 x 19.0 cm., 8-7/8 x 7-1/2" image
  • Catherine Carter Goebel, Paul A. Anderson Chair in the Arts Purchase, Paul A. Anderson Art History Collection, Augustana College 2005.4

Essay by Elizabeth P. Ducey, Director of Digital and Visual Resources, Graphic Designer, Art History

Le Rire, or Laughter, a satirical humor magazine, published weekly in Paris, debuted in 1894. At this time, with the burgeoning middle class, educated Parisians enjoyed increased income and leisure time. Much like today's news, curiosity toward scandals, government corruption, and performers who appeared in music halls, captured the interest of its readers. Le Rire poked fun at the many political and social issues of its day. The Gay 90's was a time of crowded cabarets and cafés. A variety of prominent artists illustrated such dynamics via covers and centerfolds printed through chromotypography (a relief printing technique, similar to woodblocks, only using metal rather than wood plates).

This particular cover was designed in 1896 by Félix Vallotton. It illustrates an elegant Parisian park and its environs. Here we may study its many varied inhabitants-upper-class men and women who sit and chat or relax for a leisurely smoke while nannies run about and mind their children who play nearby. The caption aptly states: "The poor idlers! And to say that we have never granted the eight-hour day!"

Félix Vallotton was a Swiss painter, graphic designer, and writer who admired prints by such Old Masters as Hans Holbein the Younger (web gallery 20) and Albrecht Dürer (web gallery 18 and 19). He joined the Nabis, an avant-garde group of young art students fromhe Académie Julian in Paris, who set the pace for graphic arts in the 1890s. Vallotton formed lifelong friendships with fellow members of the Nabis, including édouard Vuillard (web gallery 38) and Pierre Bonnard, as they pursued the Synthetist example in the work of Post-Impressionist, Paul Gauguin. Vallotton illustrated journals alongside such notables as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (web gallery 129 and 130), also sympathetic to this group. These artists created their own Symbolist movement through simplifying nature to its essential decorative beauty, incorporating elements of Art Nouveau. This style was directly influenced by the line as well as flat or patterned areas found in compositions for Japanese ukiyo-e prints (web gallery 97 and 100).

In 1891 Vallotton executed his first of more than 200 woodcuts created during his lifetime. He became recognized as an innovative leader in the revival of true woodcut as an artistic medium and would influence members of the twentieth-century German Expressionist movement, the Bridge (web gallery 152). His style in all media is characterized by flat areas of color, hard edges, and simplification of detail. Through such graphic design, Félix Vallotton would become an important modernist bridge to the twentieth century.