The Red Room, Etretat1899
Inspired by a personal photograph, this work reflects Vallotton's focus on the daily life of his household. More about this work
About this work
Inspired by a personal photograph, this work reflects Vallotton's focus on the daily life of his household. This example employs bold blocks of solid color: the red of the bed and the pink of the child's dress, for example. The result is a graphic simplicity similar to the artist's woodblock prints of interior scenes created during this same period.
Text from the Art Institute of Chicago.
What you’re looking at
Painting of a stately woman seated on a red velvet chair in a blood-red room, a blue-white fireplace to her left. She glances down at the floor with a serene expression toward a tiny blond child—a baby—who sits on the floor tearing up paper, her pink-clad back facing the viewer.
Description from the Art Institute of Chicago.
How it was made
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Art Institute of Chicago has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1977.606
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Type
- Painting
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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