Roses et capucines.

"Roses et capucines" (Roses and Nasturtiums) of 1920 belongs to the floral still lifes of Vallotton's final decade, when he worked with increasing concentration on the formal problems of tabletop arrangements. After a career defined by the psychological charge of his interior figure scenes and the formal austerity of his landscapes, the late flower pieces might seem like a retreat into decoration — but Vallotton brings to flowers the same rigour he applied to everything else. His roses and nasturtiums are depicted without sentimentality: they are formal elements, their colours and masses organised according to compositional logic rather than botanical sentiment. The year 1920 places this among a sustained body of late still lifes that includes the terracotta jug and the red pepper paintings. The choice of nasturtiums — vibrant orange flowers associated with summer abundance — alongside roses provided a rich chromatic contrast for Vallotton's typically restrained palette.

Oil on canvas with smooth, controlled handling. Individual flowers are rendered with careful differentiation of petal form and colour, but without the loose brushwork that Impressionist flower painters employed. The arrangement is depicted as a composed group rather than a casual placement, with tonal relationships between flowers and background carefully calibrated.