Background
Valtat was born in Dieppe, Seine-Maritime, France, on August 8, 1869, into an affluent family of ship owners. He was the son of François Victor Valtat, a famous painter.
14 Rue Bonaparte, 75006 Paris, France
In 1887 Valtat entered the École Nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts.
14 Rue Bonaparte, 75006 Paris, France
In 1887 Valtat entered the École Nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts.
Valtat was born in Dieppe, Seine-Maritime, France, on August 8, 1869, into an affluent family of ship owners. He was the son of François Victor Valtat, a famous painter.
Louis Valtat spent the main part of his childhood in Versailles, a suburb of Paris. There he attended secondary school at the Lycée Hoche. Encouraged by his father Valtat became interested in art. When he was 17, he decided to pursue an artistic career and entered the École Nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. In 1887 he moved to Paris and studied along with such well-known academic artists as Gustave Boulanger, Jules Lefebvre, and later with Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant.
Then, Valtat studied at the Académie Julian (now part of ESAG Penninghen) under the direction of Jules Dupré, a landscape painter of the Barbizon school. Among his fellow students were Albert André, who became his close friend, as well as Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, and Édouard Vuillard. These last three artists called themselves "Nabis" (the Hebrew word meaning "prophets") and they were inspired by Paul Gauguin's Synthetist method of painting. It was based on the use of simple forms, pure colours, and large patterns. While Louis Valtat remained detached from that movement, he learned from them a lot.
Valtat opened his own studio at rue de La Glacière in Paris in 1890. In 1893 he took part in the Salon of Independent Artists for the first time. His paintings covered one main theme: the life in the neighbouring streets such as "Sur le boulevard", which was noted by the art critic Félix Fénéon. The two other artworks representing this period included Péniches (Barges, 1892) and the Pommiers (The Apple Trees, 1894).
Louis Valtat exhibited widely during his career. By the end of 1894, he produced the decor for the theatre "L'Œuvre" in collaboration with Toulouse Lautrec and Albert André at Lugné Poë’s request. Simultaneously, his engravings and paintings were publicly presented at the Salon des Cent.
Since the winter 1897-1898 the artist used to spend the winter season in Agay, a small fishing village of fishermen close to Saint Raphaël and, later on, in Anthéor, a few kilometres away. In March 1899 Paul Signac organized a joint exhibition at La Galerie Durand Ruel where Louis Valtat exhibited twenty of his paintings.
Starting in 1900, Louis Valtat made several bicycle journeys to visit Auguste Renoir at the Maison de la Poste in Cagnes. There, he created several portrait drawings of Renoir on which he based a subsequent woodcut.
Paul Signac, another Valtat friend whom he visited often, stayed in Saint Tropez which is 40 kilometres from Anthéor. Valtat had exchanged his painting Women at the Seashore for Paul Signac’s fuel car, La Bollée, ca. 1904. Thanks to this car, the distance between the two places was easily covered during the day.
Although living far from Paris, the artist participated in the Brussels exhibition "La Libre Esthétique" in 1900 where he displayed "Le Jardin du Luxembourg" and "Le boulevard Saint Michel". He was also among the participants of the "Gebaüde der Secession" in Vienna in 1903, the Kunst Salon Ersnt Arnold in Dresde, the Berline Secession in Berlin as well as in Budapest, Praha, all in 1906, and the Tretyakov Galerie in Moscow in 1908.
In 1905 as one of Valtat's artworks was reproduced in the magazine "L’Illustration" next to those of Henri Matisse, André Derain, Henri Manguin, and Jean Puy, the painter got mixed up with the "Fauvism" scandal at the Salon d’Automne. The same year, he moved to la Butte Montmartre, at rue Girardon. In 1914 Louis Valtat moved further to l’avenue de Wagram, close to l’Arc de Triomphe and to the Bois de Boulogne. The lakes of these places very often appeared in his work.
In 1914, Louis Valtat ceased his trips to Anthéor. In 1924, after 10 years of being deprived of the pleasure of a garden, he purchased a house in Choisel, a small village in the Chevreuse valley. He spent the major part of the year there. As a result, his garden as well as the flowers and fruits which he grew, became his favourite topic for his artworks.
After 1940 Louis Valtat seldom left his studio in l’avenue de Wagram, where he produced his last paintings dated 1948. At the 1951 exhibition on the Fauvism, which was held at the Modern Art National Museum in Paris, six of his last works were shown.
Louis Valtat made a significant contribution to the world of art in the 20th century and became one of the pre-eminent painters of the Post-Impressionist period. He was noted as a pivotal figure in the stylistic transition in painting from Monet to Matisse.
Among his best-known artworks are the following: Péniches (Barges), Sur Le Boulevard (On The Boulevard), Voilieres au Port à Ouistrehamm (Ouistrehamm), Les Rochers Rouges dans la Mer (Red Rocks by the Sea), Composition avec trois vases (Composition with Three Vases), etc.
In 1890 the artist won the Jauvin d’Attainville prize. Later on, he was awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in 1927.
Valtat's works are included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Hermitage Museum, and the Musée d’Orsay, among others.
Woman in a wheelchair
Young Women in the Garden
The Rock in the Sea
Italian Landscape
Field of Corn
River banks in Choisel
Italian Landscape, Cypresses
Violet Cliffs
In the Garden, Versailles
Woman with guitar
Flowers and Fruit
Landscape of the South of France
Woman at the Seaside
A Tree in the Garden
Flowers Still Life
Barges on the Seine
The Boat
By the Sea
The Lacemaker
Young Girls Playing with a Lion Cub
Sun Through the Trees
Flowers
Landscape with Violet Irises
An Abandoned Farm
Child with Trumpet
Antheor Bay
Portrait of Suzanne Valtat
Bouquet de Fleurs
Vase de muguet
Cruche de branches, fleurs
Le concert
Physical Characteristics: Louis Valtat suffered from tuberculosis, that's why he spent many autumn/winter seasons along the Mediterranean coast in Banyuls, Antheor and Saint-Tropez. In 1940 Valtat had serious problems with his eyes (glaucoma) from which he had suffered for several years resulted in the loss of his sight.
Valtat married a woman named Suzanne in 1900.
Albert André (1869-1954) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. He created portraits of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, his closest friend, and Claude Monet.
The French painter Pierre Bonnard was one of the most original and consummate colourists of the first half of the 20th century and one of the few great painters of the period to remain unaffected by cubism.
