Talk:Félix Vallotton

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I'm still not really happy with the passage on his style; since woodcut cannot produce half-tones it is not suprising his style "eliminates" them - & it is confusing for the reader to tell them this. Johnbod 13:07, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Maybe we can agree on a different term--what I have in mind is the grays & gradations produced by parallel hatchings. In Durer's The Vision of the Seven Candlesticksthe layers of clouds are differentiated by varied gray tones & the draperies are modeled with hatching & crosshatching; in Beckmann's 1922 Self-portrait volume is created by scattered hatchings. FV makes sparing use of this in some of his portrait woodcuts but in the interiors & street scenes he nearly always eliminates it entirely, relying instead on pattered fabrics, checkerboard floors and the like to provide relief from solid blacks & whites. I'm not altogether comfortable with "halftone" myself because it's so strongly identified with photomechanical dot-patterns; maybe hatching is a better term here, or transitions or modeling? Ewulp 03:56, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

well what is original about him, to my mind anyway, is his not being afraid of having large areas of black - larger than the Japanese. I was trying to convery this with (earlier draft):

"Vallotton's woodcut style featured large areas of solid black, translating reality into stark oppositions of massed black and white while emphasizing outline and pattern. The influences of post-Impressionism, [[symbolism..."

- I must say I still think this is clearer (especially with no woodcut pic), but i'm sure we can work something outJohnbod 04:16, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

I had changed that to avoid what seemed a slight redundancy: large areas of solid black & massed black, but I see your point; I've just made a stab at fixing this, let me know what you think. Ewulp 05:43, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

that's great; now all we need is a woodcut pic! Johnbod 15:34, 5 December 2006 (UTC)