Swiss bom Vallotton trained in Paris with Toulouse-Lautrec at the Academy Julien. Early in his career he faithfully copied the old masters in the Louvre and made engravings in the manner of Millet and Rembrandt. He became one of the 'Nabis' (Prophets) symbolists and was a collaborator in the 'Revue Blanche' between 1894 and 1901. His woodcuts, which he began making in the early 1890s in his own highly innovative style, were greatly influenced by Japanese woodcuts and were very popular. They were all made within a space of seven years, after which he, having married into a wealthy art-dealer's family, concentrated on painting; his brother Paul had editions printed in 1931, all of 25 impressions on white japan paper and 10 on wove paper; they bear stamped initials of the artist and the Vallotton Atelier blindstamp