The Swans

1889–1903 · Affiliazione

Les Nabis

1890

European tour: Berlin, Prague, Venice

Vallotton made a tour of Europe; Italy impressed him most of all, and he returned there often in later years.

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.

1891

Leaves the Salon for the Indépendants

Showing at the official Salon des Artistes for the last time, Vallotton exhibited six paintings at the avant-garde Salon des Indépendants for the first time. Commissions from Swiss patrons began to arrive at the same time.

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.