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Edouard VALLET

(1876 – 1929)

Edouard Vallet is an Art Nouveau painter, engraver and draftsman and one of the most important Swiss artist of the beginning of the 20th century with Ferdinand Hodler, Ernest Biéler and Giovanni Giacometti.
Born in Geneva into a family of French merchants, Edouard Vallet began his career as a sculptor of ornaments, then followed classes in xylography (a process of multiple reproduction of an image using the technique of wood engraving) at the School of Industrial Arts.
His first poster, for the show "Poème Alpestre", a musical work by E. Jaques Dalcroze, for the Swiss National Exhibition in Geneva in 1896, already tackles one of the themes that will be dear to him: the life of mountain farmers. The drawing in stone-lithography will be used in all the posters of the "Poème Alpestre".
Edouard Vallet used a wide range of techniques: pastel, gouache, watercolour, oil, lithography, not to mention etching, which made him one of the undisputed masters of Swiss engraving (see his poster for his exhibition at the Cercle des Arts et des Lettres, printed by the Swiss Artistic Poster Society in 1896).
From 1908 to 1927, Edouard Vallet spent long stays in the Valais, in the villages of Ayent, Hérémence, Savièse, Vercorin and the town of Sion. The discovery of the Valais was a turning point in his artistic career: he drew his inspiration from the mountainous landscapes, the old mazots and rural life. He settled in Savièse in 1911 and produced his most important paintings, such as 'La servante valaisanne' and 'Le retour au hameau', to name but a few. Attached to the School of Savièse, Vallet's work evokes the lives of little people and old people. In 1912, he bought a house in Vercorin in which he set up his studio, a house which has now been transformed into a museum in honour of the painter.
The same year, Vallet organised his first major solo exhibition. He goes to Wolfensberger in Zurich, a city where he is more appreciated than in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. He creates the poster "Zum Wolfsberg 1912", depicting a mother and her baby perched on a mule, an old woman from the Valais leading a cow and a calf, and another carrying a milk carton on her back. All these women turn their backs on the spectator and seem to hide their true identity. In 1917, Vallet organised a new exhibition of his work and returned to Wolfensberger in Zurich. For the poster of his exhibition, he showed three women in traditional costume, this time presented from the front.
According to the poster historian Jean-Charles Giroud, "the three parts of the work, the image, the letter and the text are perfectly integrated with each other. The bright red apron of the central character is eye-catching, the line is fine, the balance of the composition is perfect. Symbol of the beauty of art, like the Three Graces, his women each hold bouquets of flowers, symbols of the artist's works".

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Exposition nationale suisse, Poème Alpestre, Genève

1896

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Cercle des Arts et des Lettres, Exposition 1899 Genève

1899

CHF 1470.–

Exposition Ed. Vallet, Galerie Wolfsberg, Zürich

1912

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Edouard Vallet expose à la Galerie Moos,Genève

1914

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Austellung Edouard Vallet, Kunstsalon Wolfsberg Zürich

1917

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Austellung Edouard Vallet

1917

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Zürich, Edouard Vallet, Kunstsalon

1920

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Semaine Valaisanne Zurich

1927

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