Roses and Nasturtiums
Felix Vallotton builds roses and nasturtiums from firm, deliberate strokes. On a wall it reads as architecture first, flowers second, and holds a room with quiet weight.
From$24900to $699.00Vallotton Paints Flowers Like Buildings
Picture a dining room at midday. Pale walls, plain linen, a table cleared for the evening. This is the room the painting assumes. Roses and nasturtiums spill across the surface in a dense cluster, reds and pinks anchored at the centre, small orange discs trailing outward. The background stays flat and pale, so every petal edge reads clean against the emptiness. Nothing glows. Nothing softens. The flowers are treated as architecture, each bloom built from firm, deliberate strokes of oil paint, and at full scale that construction is what you notice first.
Vallotton worked with the Nabis in Paris in the 1890s, alongside Bonnard and Vuillard, and shared their taste for flat colour and hard contour. He was also a sharp draughtsman and a printmaker of unnerving clarity. That clarity runs through his still lifes. Where other painters of flowers chased atmosphere, Vallotton drew edges and held them. This work sits in that vein, a still life that behaves more like design than decoration.
Paris in the 1890s, Painting Turned Flat
The Nabis took lessons from Gauguin and Japanese woodblock design and applied them to domestic French subjects. Interiors, gardens, tables set for meals. They flattened space, simplified colour, and let pattern do the work that modelling once did. It was a quiet revolution. Painting stopped pretending to be a window and admitted it was a surface. Vallotton joined the group in its early years and pushed the idea further than most, toward a severity the others avoided.
What holds attention here is the tension between subject and treatment. Roses are traditionally sentimental. Vallotton paints them with the detachment of a surveyor. Petals become planes. Leaves become discs. The even light, the kind a north-facing room gives, keeps everything legible at once. That legibility is why it rewards daily viewing. The image never dissolves into mood. It stays an object, crisp each morning, and never asks to be reinterpreted.
Firm Strokes and Flat Pale Ground
Edges That Hold
At arm's length the first thing you see is contour. Each petal is closed with a single decisive stroke, no feathering, no blending into the neighbour. The pale ground does half the work. Because the background refuses depth, the silhouette of every bloom stays sharp from across the room. It is the opposite of the soft-focus flower study, and it is what gives the painting its presence on a wall.
Colour Without Blending
Vallotton sets reds against pinks in flat blocks, then lets the nasturtiums break the arrangement with small orange discs and round green leaves. The palette is warm at the centre and cool at the edges. Nothing is graded. The colour sits on the surface like enamel, which is why the work reads instantly from a distance and keeps its structure when you come close.
Light From the North
The illumination is even, shadowless, the light of a studio window facing north. That choice removes drama and leaves form. Each bloom is modelled just enough to feel solid, then flattened again. It is a technical decision with a domestic payoff. The painting never depends on a particular hour or lamp. It looks the same at breakfast and at midnight, and it never flickers.
Sizes and Prices for Roses and Nasturtiums
Roses and Nasturtiums is produced as a framed poster in 3 sizes. Each is printed to order on archival stock and ships free worldwide.
Own Roses and Nasturtiums
Felix Vallotton, produced as a framed poster and made to order. Complimentary delivery, worldwide.
View the EditionDesigning with Roses and Nasturtiums
A dining room is the natural home, hung centred above a table or on the wall beside a sideboard. It also works on a conservatory shelf, where pale linen and plain plaster let the reds carry the room. Hang the centre at eye level, around 145 centimetres, and keep surrounding objects spare. The smallest size suits a hallway or a pair above a bed. The mid size holds a dining wall on its own. The largest reads almost like the original canvas and wants a metre of clear space around it. Wall colour should stay chalky or pale grey. Brass or blackened wood nearby, nothing ornate.
Does this print come framed, and with what materials?
Yes. It arrives in a premium hardwood frame made with conservation-grade materials, built to protect the print and complement it without drawing attention away from the artwork.
How much is shipping, and what's the typical delivery window?
Shipping is complimentary worldwide, with no order minimum. Expect delivery in roughly 5-10 business days depending on where you're located.
What materials keep the print archival-quality?
The print itself is produced on archival paper, and it's glazed with UV-protective acrylic to help the colors hold up over time.
What happens if I want to send it back?
You have 30 days from delivery to return it for a full refund or exchange -- the piece just needs to come back in its original condition.
More Works by Felix Vallotton
Further works by Felix Vallotton in the Auvrique collection.
Sources & Further Reading
- Further reading: SFMOMA
- Further reading: Print Council of America
- See Fine Art Trade Guild
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Bring Vallotton Home
Printed to order on archival stock, delivered worldwide at no cost, ready to hang within 5 to 10 business days.
View the Edition