Vallotton's woodcut style was novel in its starkly reductive opposition of large masses of undifferentiated black and areas of unmodulated white.

In the western world, the relief print, in the form of commercial wood engraving, had long been utilized mainly as a means to accurately reproduce drawn or painted images and, latterly, photographs. The many woodcuts Vallotton produced during the 1890s were recognized as innovative, and established him as a leader in the revival of true woodcut as an artistic medium. In 1891, he executed his first woodcut, a portrait of Paul Verlaine. Over the following decade, Vallotton painted, wrote art criticism, and made a number of prints. In 1885, at the age of 20, he painted the Ingresque Portrait of Monsieur Ursenbach as well as his first painted self-portrait, which received an honorable mention at the Salon des artistes français in 1886. Vallotton's earliest paintings, chiefly portraits, are firmly rooted in the academic tradition. He spent many hours in the Louvre, and he greatly admired the works of Holbein, Dürer and Ingres, artists who would remain exemplars for Vallotton throughout his life. That same year, he moved to Paris to study art under Jules Joseph Lefebvre and Gustave Boulanger at the Académie Julian. Vallotton was born into a conservative middle-class family in Lausanne, and there he attended Collège Cantonal, graduating with a degree in classical studies in 1882.

He was an important figure in the development of the modern woodcut. Félix Edouard Vallotton (Decem– December 29, 1925) was a Swiss/French painter and printmaker associated with the collective known as Les Nabis.

Félix édouard vallotton