Félix Edouard VallottonFrench, 1865–1925The Exit
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “The Exit” now? Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.
Cleveland, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
Swiss-born artist Félix Vallotton was known for boldly graphic images that depicted—often satirically—the lives of the Parisian bourgeoisie. He used this style, which featured flat planes of black and white, to produce both woodcuts and illustrations for popular journals. This drawing was reproduced in an 1894 issue of the popular arts and culture weekly Le Courrier Français. It depicts a sea of top-hat-clad men and veiled women departing a Parisian theater, probably the Odéon, with a sense of chaos that belies their formal attire. Like many of his time, Vallotton was interested in the psychology of crowds and the impact of urban life on the inhabitants of modern cities like Paris.
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Details
- Accession number
- 2025.149
In the catalog
Sources
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Image: The Cleveland Museum of Art — Museum open access
In the life of Félix Edouard Vallotton
The whole life1889–1903 · Membership
Les Nabis
1890–1897
Art critic for the Gazette de Lausanne
To earn a living Vallotton restored paintings for the dealer Henri Haro, and from 1890 he wrote for the Swiss Gazette de Lausanne — some thirty articles on the Paris art world up to 1897.
1892
“The Foreign Nabi” and friendship with Vuillard
Among the Nabis — Bonnard, Roussel, Maurice Denis — Vallotton found a lifelong friend in Édouard Vuillard; he kept a little apart from the others, earning the jocular title of “the Foreign Nabi”.
1893–1897
Woodcuts for La Revue Blanche; the Natansons' patronage
His woodcuts brought Vallotton clients and financial security: he illustrated leading French periodicals, including La Revue Blanche, and foreign ones such as The Chap-Book of Chicago, and cut covers for theatre programmes and book illustrations. Thadée Natanson, publisher of La Revue Blanche, and his wife Misia became his patrons and introduced him to the Paris avant-garde elite — Mallarmé, Proust, Satie and Debussy.
1896
His album “Studies of Women” is published
A Paris publisher issued Vallotton's album “Studies of Women”.
