Vallotton was born into a conservative middle-class family in Lausanne, the third of four children. His father owned a pharmacy, and later purchased a chocolate factory. His mother, Emma, was the daughter of a furniture craftsman. His family environment was warm but strict, in the Swiss Protestant tradition.

Beginning in 1875 he attended the Collège Cantonal, graduating with a degree in classical studies in 1882. He also began to attend the drawing classes of the painter Jean-Samson Guignard, normally reserved for most advanced students, where he showed a particular skill in close observation and realism. When he completed the course, he persuaded his parents to let him go to Paris to study art seriously.

In January 1882 he settled in Rue Jacob in the neighborhood of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, and enrolled in Académie Julian, where he studied with the portrait painter Jules Joseph Lefebvre and the history painter Gustave Boulanger, and where he perfected his technical skills.

He spent many hours in the Louvre, and he greatly admired the works of Leonardo Da Vinci, Holbein, Dürer, and more modern painters, including Goya and Manet, and especially Ingres, whose works were models for Vallotton throughout his life.

In 1883, Vallotton’s father wrote to Lefebvre, questioning whether his son could make a living as a painter. Lefebre responded that the young Vallotton had the talent and ability to succeed.

In the same year, Vallotton succeeded in the rigorous competition to enter the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, but decided instead to remain at the Academie Julian, where his friends were. He also began to frequent the cafés and cabarets of Montmartre. Source: Wikipedia.