La paresse (Laziness)

1896

Félix Vallotton

Artist, Swiss, 1865 - 1925

Created with black ink on cream-white paper, we look down on a nude woman who lies face down on her bed and reaches to pet a cat who stretches up against the bed in this horizontal woodcut. The woman’s knees are bent and her feet dangle in the air, and are cut off by the top edge of the composition. She turns her head to our right as she reaches out with her left hand to pet or scratch the cat’s ears. The woman's forehead, nose, and brows are outlined with a few black lines. Her other elbow is bent with that hand curled in her hair. The bed is draped with fabric covered with geometric patterns, such as checkerboards, zigzags, and diamond shapes. Throw pillows piled under her head and along the far side of her body are decorated with swirls, curves, and dashes. The cat stands on its hind legs with its back to us and its forelegs on the bed. The floor and the area around the bed is black. The words “La Paresse” appear in black letters in a white rectangle at the bottom left of the image and “FV” is inscribed in capitals in the lower right. The artist signed and dated the lower right margin below the image,” fVallotton 32.”

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    woodcut on cream wove paper

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Frank and Jeannette Eyerly

  • Dimensions

    image: 17.9 x 22.4 cm (7 1/16 x 8 13/16 in.)
    sheet: 25 x 32.1 cm (9 13/16 x 12 5/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1986.81.1

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Vallotton/Goerg 1972, no. 169, State a/d


Artwork history & notes

Exhibition History

2014

  • Expressionism in Germany and France: From Van Gogh to Kandinsky, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 2014 - 2015, no. 196.

Bibliography

1932

  • Godefroy 1932, 167.

1972

  • Vallotton, Maxime and Charles Goerg. Felix Vallotton, catalogue raisonne de l'oeuvre grave et lithographie; catalogue raisonne of the printed graphic work. Geneva: Les Editions de Bonvent, 1972.

Inscriptions

lower right in blue: fVallotton / 32; lower left in plate: LA PARESSE; lower right in plate: FV

Wikidata ID

Q74875280


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