If I’m visiting somebody I’m calling on them. I might be taking a trip, an excursion, or I might be working. Somebody might visit me. It could be anybody. A visit is always temporary and this painting by Félix Vallotton is an essay in impermanence. The liaison we see taking place might be between two people who with a private passion for each other, who may have known each other for a long time; or between two near-strangers. In either case perhaps this is the only place they can be together. A visit. They stand on something that looks close to a fault line and the way ahead is barred. To the right there is something exotic the; to the left there is something dark and shadowy – and these thoughts come just from reading the floor coverings. Ahead of them, of course, is an open door way (also barred). They do not look young. This is a liaison, a time that might be repeated, but not so many times. It’s a time that cannot last.
