Louis Valtat Dieppe 1869 - 1952 Paris

Louis Valtat, was born in Dieppe in 1869 to a wealthy family of ship owners, and belonged to the generation of painters between the Impressionists and the persistent innovators of the early twentieth century. Following a calling, he studied art at the academy in Paris and then at the prestigious “Academie Julian”, where he made the acquaintance of Bonnard, Vuillard and Georges d’Espagnat.[1] From 1889 onwards, Louis Valtat exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon des Indépendants as well as at the Autumn Salon. From the beginning, his works were praised for their brilliant employment of colour and forceful compositions of forms and boundaries. While his vibrantly colourful paintings unite incredible spontaneity with the subtlest conceivable composition whose expression is indebted to the Impressionist legacy, his fascination for the forms of objects betrays the influence of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin.

With its vigorous brushstrokes, accentuated colouration and rhythmic composition, our small-scale flower still life also reveals Valtat’s infallible artistic instinct. The flower arrangement is characterized by vibrant beauty and pulsating dynamic. Red, orange and purple are the dominant hues. Subtly placed accents of radiant turquoise and fresh yellow reflect Valtat’s well-differentiated perception of light and colour, which he refined during his numerous travels to southern regions. Strongly simplifying the representation of botanical details, Valtat reduced the blossoms to contoured organic forms, staggering them rhythmically in the process. He skilfully softened the two-dimensional character by subtly modelling the interior surfaces with colour. The flower bouquet is accordingly a captivating example of Louis Valtat’s unparalleled oeuvre whose expressive force casts a spell over the beholder.