Sous Bois
Felix Vallotton's Sous Bois as a canvas edition. A forest interior built from flat planes of viridian and umber that quiets a room and holds its colour from across it.
From$17900to $229.00Designing with Sous Bois
The greens here are deep but not heavy, so the picture settles a room without dimming it. A reading nook with warm wood and a linen or oatmeal upholstery is the natural home. It also works in a hallway, where the vertical trunks meet a narrow wall and lengthen it. Hang it at eye level, centred about 145 cm from the floor, against paint in bone, sage, or a muted clay. The smaller size suits a nook or an entry, sitting above a console or a low shelf. The larger one stands alone on a study wall and needs no partner. In either size, the colour reads from across the room, which is the point.
Sizes and Prices for Sous Bois
Sous Bois is produced as a canvas in 2 sizes. Each is printed to order on archival stock and ships free worldwide.
Sous Bois, Painted Like a Pattern
Start with the trunks. They rise as vertical bands, dark brown against green, almost striped. Vallotton has thinned the forest to its essentials, so the eye reads the picture as rhythm before it reads it as place. Leaf masses sit in rounded clumps, olive and deep viridian, stacked like clouds that never lift. The ground is a low strip of mossy tone. Light barely touches it. From across a room, the whole surface resolves into a few confident colour decisions.
Vallotton belonged to Les Nabis, the group that treated painting as arrangement rather than imitation. He was the coldest of them, known for hard edges and interiors with an edge of unease. His landscapes share that discipline. Sous Bois flattens depth on purpose and lets pattern overtake perspective, which is why it sits so cleanly on a wall. Nothing in it wavers.
Nabis Colour and the Decorative Turn
In the 1890s, the Nabis pushed painting toward the decorative. Gauguin's example mattered, Japanese prints mattered, and the result was work that accepted flatness instead of fighting it. Vallotton, a Swiss painter working in Paris, brought a draftsman's severity to the idea. His woods, his beaches, his domestic scenes all share a refusal to soften. Where other painters of the period blurred and glowed, he outlined, blocked, and let colour carry the weight.
What holds attention here is the relationship between greens. Viridian against olive, umber trunks between them, a mossy floor underneath. The contrasts are close in value, so the picture hums rather than shouts, and it keeps humming at a distance. That is the practical test of a woodland image. It rewards the tenth viewing as much as the first, because the colour decisions stay interesting on ordinary days.
Flat Planes, Deliberate Edges
The Vertical Rhythm
The trunks are the structure. Vallotton paints them as even bands, slightly varied in width and tone, so the picture has the cadence of a printed textile. At arm's length you notice the edges, hard where a trunk meets foliage, and how each vertical keeps the composition upright. Remove that rhythm and the scene would collapse into scenery. With it, the eye moves up and down the surface instead of into it.
Leaf Masses as Shapes
The foliage is not leaves. It is a set of rounded masses, stacked and overlapping, each one a single tone of green with a darker underside. Vallotton draws the boundary of each clump cleanly, then lets the tones sit side by side. Up close the masses read as almost abstract. Step back and they become canopy. That double reading is the pleasure of the picture, and it survives reproduction well because the shapes are simple and the colours are true.
Light Held Back
Almost no direct light enters the scene. Vallotton keeps the value range narrow, darks against mid-tones, with the ground a muted mossy strip at the base. The effect is a forest interior that never brightens, and that restraint is deliberate. Because nothing glows, nothing competes with the room around it. The picture reads as shade, and shade, hung well, is one of the easiest things to live with.
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What type of frame is included with this print?
Each print comes with a premium hardwood frame that features conservation-grade materials. The frame is designed to complement the artwork while providing protection and durability.
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Do you offer free worldwide shipping? How long does delivery take?
Yes, we offer free worldwide shipping on all orders with no minimum purchase required. Delivery typically takes 5-10 business days, depending on your location.
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Is the print made with archival-quality materials?
Yes. We use archival paper and UV-protective acrylic glazing to help your print maintain its colors over time.
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What is your return policy?
We offer a 30-day return policy on all orders. If you're not completely satisfied with your print, you may return it within 30 days for a full refund or exchange.
More Works by Felix Vallotton
Further works by Felix Vallotton in the Auvrique collection.
Sources & Further Reading
- As documented by Art Institute of Chicago
- Reference: Library of Congress — Prints & Photographs
- See Elle Decor
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Own Sous Bois
Felix Vallotton, produced as a canvas and made to order. Complimentary delivery, worldwide.
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