During his 10-day stay he executed numerous sketches, about a dozen of which he turned into oil paintings.
Among them is La Dordogne à Vitrac, a 2ft 2in x 2ft 6in (65 x 81cm) canvas, which is for sale at Beurret & Bailly on March 24.
The painting is well documented and its provenance can be traced back to its first owner. This was Eugène Druet, who for many years worked closely with Auguste Rodin, photographing his sculptures. In 1903 Druet opened a gallery in Paris, where he handled the works of numerous contemporary artists, among them Vallotton.
La Dordogne à Vitrac later came into possession of Georges Renand (1879-1968), who amassed an impressive collection of 19th and 20th century masterpieces, which was dispersed in the late 1980s, after the death of the collector’s widow.
The riverscape on offer in Basel, however, remained in the hands of Renand’s descendants until 2011, when it sold to a Swiss collector at Sotheby’s in Zürich.
It now carries an estimate of SFr350,000-450,000.
