The Family of Trees
Felix Vallotton · CanvasFélix Vallotton paints a stand of trees as a family portrait. On a wall, the deep greens settle a room and the slim dark trunks give it a quiet vertical rhythm.
From$17900to $229.00Vallotton Paints a Family of Trees
The painting refuses to show you the sky. Canopy presses against canopy until the upper edge closes like a lid, and whatever light exists has to arrive sideways, low, filtered through leaves. Vallotton gives no path into the grove and no figure to stand in for us. What he offers instead is the feeling of standing at the edge of a gathering, close enough to hear it, not invited in. The trunks read as bodies. The gaps between them read as glances.
Vallotton built his reputation in Paris in the 1890s alongside the Nabis, a group that treated painting as arrangement rather than imitation. He was best known for sharp, unnerving woodcuts of domestic life, and that same flatness carried into his landscapes. Trees became columns, hills became stages. The Family of Trees belongs to that habit of mind, a natural scene composed with the cool logic of an interior.
Flat Colour and the Nabi Way of Seeing
The Nabis worked in the shadow of Gauguin and of Japanese woodblock design, both of which taught a generation that a picture could be built from areas of colour rather than modelled from light. Gauguin's Breton fields, the bold outlines of ukiyo-e, the decorative panels of Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard, all pointed the same direction. Vallotton absorbed the lesson with more severity than his friends. Where they softened, he squared off. His landscapes of the 1890s and after reduce nature to planes, edges and deliberate spacing, closer to design than to weather.
What keeps the eye here is the tension between stillness and company. Nothing moves, yet the trunks seem mid-conversation, each one leaning slightly toward or away from its neighbour. The ochre warmth at the base keeps the green from going cold. Day after day, the picture behaves the same way. It gives a room a low, even hum rather than a spectacle, which is exactly why it survives being looked at every morning.
Flat Planes, Dark Outlines, Spacing as Drawing
Colour Without Shadow
At arm's length the green is one decision, not many. Vallotton lays it down in even blocks, deep forest against a paler ground, with almost no modulation to suggest depth. The eye reads the picture instantly because it is not asked to model form. That evenness is the Nabi signature, and on a wall it gives the surface a calm, printed quality that photographs and murals borrow from to this day.
The Trunk as Line
Each trunk is reduced to a slim vertical, outlined in near black and filled with a single tone. They function like the strokes of a drawing rather than like trees, and their slight differences in width and lean are what make the composition feel alive. Look closely and the spacing between them does all the perspective work. Distance is measured in gaps, not in shading, a method Vallotton took straight from Japanese graphics.
Light Under the Leaves
The only warmth sits low. An ochre band warms the base of the picture where light slips beneath the canopy and touches the ground, and it is the detail that keeps the whole from turning austere. Without it the greens would close into a single cold mass. With it, the scene reads as afternoon rather than midnight, and the eye keeps returning to that thin warm register the way it returns to a lamp left on in a dark room.
Designing with The Family of Trees
This is a picture for a room that ends the day. Hang it in a study or reading nook, above a linen sofa or a low bookcase, centred at seated eye level so the trunks align with your line of sight in a chair. It sits comfortably against plaster white, warm grey, or a muted clay wall, and it likes brass or paper-shade lamplight more than overhead spots. The smaller size holds a corner vignette beside an armchair. The larger one carries a full wall in a compact room without shouting. Keep the surroundings plain and let the greens do the talking. Pair it with nothing, or with one dark ceramic vase on a shelf below.
Sizes and Prices for The Family of Trees
The Family of Trees is produced as a canvas in 2 sizes. Each is printed to order on archival stock and ships free worldwide.
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What kind of frame comes with this piece?
Every print ships in a hardwood frame built from conservation-grade materials, chosen to sit quietly behind the artwork rather than compete with it, while still protecting the print itself.
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Is shipping really free, and how long will it take to arrive?
Shipping is free on every order, everywhere, with no minimum spend. Most orders arrive within 5 to 10 business days depending on destination.
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Are archival materials used in production?
They are. Each print is produced on archival paper and finished with UV-protective acrylic glazing to slow color fade over the years.
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Can I return this if it isn't right for the space?
Yes. Returns are accepted within 30 days of delivery for a full refund or an exchange, no questions asked.
Own The Family of Trees
Felix Vallotton, produced as a canvas and made to order. Complimentary delivery, worldwide.
View the EditionMore Works by Felix Vallotton
Further works by Felix Vallotton in the Auvrique collection.
Sources & Further Reading
- As documented by Dezeen
- Further reading: MoMA — What Is a Print?
- According to Elle Decor
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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