Interpretive Resource

Edouard Vuillard
French, 1868-1940
Edouard Vuillard specialized in intimate, domestic interior scenes. One of the artist's favorite subjects was his mother, who lived with her bachelor son and worked in the home as a seamstress. His style was distinguished by subtly modulated color harmonies and an emphasis on patterned surfaces.

After first studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Vuillard moved to the Académie Julian, where he met Pierre Bonnard and other painters with similar stylistic interests. Together they founded the group they called Nabis in the late 1880s.

During this period Vuillard wrote, "A woman's head has just produced in me a certain emotion. I must make use of this emotion alone and I must not try to remember the nose or the ear, they're of no importance."

By the end of the century, however, the Nabis had disbanded and Vuillard returned to a more naturalistic style. He executed large decorative schemes, including stage scenery, from 1892 to 1937. Widely admired during his career, Vuillard enjoyed a steady flow of commissions after 1905.