Nude with Blue Sash

By 1922 Vallotton was in his late fifties and painting nudes that ran against the fashion around him. While much of Paris chased looser and brighter styles, he kept his surfaces hard and smooth, almost like enamel, and his outlines crisp. Here a woman stands against a curtain of narrow vertical stripes, a blue sash wound once around her waist. The skin is cool and evenly lit, the pose held rather than caught, and the picture carries the airless calm that runs through much of his work. The blue of the sash is the only strong colour he allows himself, set against the muted stripes behind her.