Édouard Vuillard
1868 - 1940
Portrait of Jean Reiss in a Sailor Suit
Pastel on buff paper, laid down on board
39 x 34.2 cm (15 ³/₈ x 13 ¹/₂ inches)
Signed and dedicated lower right, pour Lucy / E Vuillard
39 x 34.2 cm (15 ³/₈ x 13 ¹/₂ inches)
Signed and dedicated lower right, pour Lucy / E Vuillard
Gifted from the artist to Lucy Hessel, Paris, in April 1915
Lucie (Lulu) Grandjean-Hessel (Mme. Jacques Arpels), Paris, by descent to her adopted daughter
Thence by descent
Lucie (Lulu) Grandjean-Hessel (Mme. Jacques Arpels), Paris, by descent to her adopted daughter
Thence by descent
Antoine Salomon and Guy Cogeval, Vuillard: The Inexhaustible Glance. Critical Catalogue of Paintings and Pastels, Milan, 2003, Vol.III, p.1265, no.X-190 (dated 1915)
This original artwork by Edouard Vuillard is available for immediate purchase.
Édouard Vuillard
biography
Édouard Vuillard was born in Saône-et-Loire, France, in 1868. Raised in a household shaped by his mother’s dressmaking workshop, Vuillard developed an early sensitivity to textile pattern, colour and domestic interiors. He studied briefly at the Lycée Condorcet, where he formed lifelong artistic friendships, before entering the École des Beaux-Arts and later the Académie Julian. There he encountered Pierre Bonnard and Maurice Denis, with whom he would go on to establish the Nabi circle by 1890.
Les Nabis (from the Hebrew for prophet) were an avant-garde group indebted to the innovations of Gauguin and Japanese printmaking. Collectively, the Nabis artists maintained that art was a synthesis of metaphors and symbols manifested in everyday life. Vuillard shared a studio with Bonnard, his closest peer, and during this time developed a reputation for theatre decoration and decorative painting. Notable commissions include the series for the Théâtre de l’Œuvre in Paris, reflecting his interest in scenography and visual narrative. He also worked frequently in pastel, a medium that allowed for subtle surface transitions and the granular textures for which he is known.
After 1900, Vuillard’s palette brightened, and travel to London, Brussels, and Switzerland broadened his scope, while new patronage introduced grander domestic projects, portraits and mural cycles. His association with the Natanson family, founders of La Revue Blanche, granted him access to literary salons and progressive intellectual circles. The later portraits of Misia Natanson, Lucy Hessel, and members of the Thadée Natanson milieu, are characterised by combining Nabist colour sensibility with greater naturalism.
In the 1910s and 1920s, Vuillard completed several monumental decorative schemes, including panels for the Hôtel de Ville in Paris and the Palais des Nations in Geneva. His mature style retained the intimacy of his Nabi years yet adopted a stronger structural clarity. He served on the advisory board of the Musée du Luxembourg and was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1938, consolidating his position within the French artistic establishment.
Vuillard’s work is represented in major public collections worldwide, including the Musée d’Orsay, Paris; Tate, London; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Les Nabis (from the Hebrew for prophet) were an avant-garde group indebted to the innovations of Gauguin and Japanese printmaking. Collectively, the Nabis artists maintained that art was a synthesis of metaphors and symbols manifested in everyday life. Vuillard shared a studio with Bonnard, his closest peer, and during this time developed a reputation for theatre decoration and decorative painting. Notable commissions include the series for the Théâtre de l’Œuvre in Paris, reflecting his interest in scenography and visual narrative. He also worked frequently in pastel, a medium that allowed for subtle surface transitions and the granular textures for which he is known.
After 1900, Vuillard’s palette brightened, and travel to London, Brussels, and Switzerland broadened his scope, while new patronage introduced grander domestic projects, portraits and mural cycles. His association with the Natanson family, founders of La Revue Blanche, granted him access to literary salons and progressive intellectual circles. The later portraits of Misia Natanson, Lucy Hessel, and members of the Thadée Natanson milieu, are characterised by combining Nabist colour sensibility with greater naturalism.
In the 1910s and 1920s, Vuillard completed several monumental decorative schemes, including panels for the Hôtel de Ville in Paris and the Palais des Nations in Geneva. His mature style retained the intimacy of his Nabi years yet adopted a stronger structural clarity. He served on the advisory board of the Musée du Luxembourg and was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1938, consolidating his position within the French artistic establishment.
Vuillard’s work is represented in major public collections worldwide, including the Musée d’Orsay, Paris; Tate, London; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Édouard Vuillard
biography
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