Andromède

"Andromède" of 1918 is Vallotton's first treatment of the chained princess subject, preceding the 1925 version he would paint in his final year. The myth of Andromeda — chained as a sacrifice, eventually rescued by Perseus — was a standard subject of European academic painting, with a tradition running from Titian and Rubens through Ingres, Delacroix, and Gustave Moreau into the twentieth century. Vallotton's treatment in 1918 takes the subject at a moment when classical mythology was being revisited in the context of the First World War — several French and Swiss artists turned to myth as a framework for addressing experiences of vulnerability, waiting, and violence that direct representation could not adequately contain. His Andromeda does not await rescue in the conventional manner: she is presented with the same frank, unembellished observation as his modern nudes, the mythological setting providing only a coastal rock rather than any theatrical staging.

Oil on canvas with smooth, controlled execution. The figure of Andromeda is painted with the anatomical precision of Vallotton's nude studies, the mythological context not prompting any heightening of the figure's treatment toward classical idealisation. The coastal setting is handled in his flat landscape manner, the sea described as a tonal plane rather than an expressive force.