Jacques Villon

Young Girl, Back Turned (looking for French title), 1908, via MoMA.

Was in Europe this past summer (July and August 2010) and I had the great fortune of visiting many museums, one of which was the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Having not had much exposure to Van Gogh beforehand, I was expecting to develop an understanding and hopefully a preference for Van Gogh’s works after this visit. Unfortunately, I did not develop a liking for his work whatsoever, and the exhibits at the museum that actually fascinated me had nothing to do with Van Gogh.

One such exhibit was Jacques Villon’s temporary exhibition from the Rijksmuseum (also located in Amsterdam).

Jacques Villon, according to many biographies of him, is best known for his cubist work. However, the exhibit I saw focused on his early work as an illustrator who was influenced by Art Nouveau at the time, and I immediately liked what I saw. I can’t recall all the best work that I’ve seen from the museum (no photos were allowed and I was running out of time and couldn’t jot down the titles), but I was very, very taken by the wispy lines and the watery colours. I was also lucky to have seen the actual metal plate that produced Le Potin (not 100% sure, just sure that it was one that contained multiple well-dressed women), and it was quite awesome.

There were also a few books on display for which there were illustrations by Villon. Would’ve liked to flip through them, but alas. Tried to look for a book or some sort of souvenir related to Villon’s works at the Van Gogh gift shop, but there were none. Very disappointing, but should’ve expected as much because it was a temporary exhibit. Still, would be great to get a book on him immediately after!

Yeah, really can’t get enough of Villon’s prints and illustrations, they’re really very good. Here are some of my favourites:
- La Femmeau Chien Colley, 1905
- La Parisienne, 1902, La Parisienne, 1904
- Devant un Guignol, 1909
- La Chasse aux Mouettes,1904 (Incredible blue colour)

The Museum of Modern Art Database: http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=6165
Artfact: http://www.artfact.com/artist/villon-jacques-l2wcsdg6zl
de Young Collections: http://deyoung.famsf.org/search-collections
R. S. Johnson Fine Art: http://www.rsjohnsonfineart.com/villon.htm