Madame Arthur Fontaine (Marie Escudier Fontaine) in a Pink Shawl

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

c. 1904-05

Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868-1940)

Marie Escudier Fontaine appears to be enjoying a quiet moment at home in this portrait, one of many that Edouard Vuillard painted of her. Vuillard emphasized the intimacy of the scene through his compression of space, achieved by the unusual viewpoint from above and behind, and through his use of flat patches of color and pattern. The artist first developed a friendship with Marie and her husband Arthur Fontaine, and maintained his close relationship with Marie following her divorce from Fontaine in 1905. A pianist herself, she socialized within a circle of prominent artists, musicians, writers, and patrons, including Post-Impressionists like Vuillard.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Édouard Jean Vuillard
Title: Madame Arthur Fontaine (Marie Escudier Fontaine) in a Pink Shawl
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1904–1905
Medium: Gouache and oil on cardboard mounted on cardboard
Inscriptions: Signed lower right: E. Vuillard
Dimensions: 50.2 × 43.8 cm (19 3/4 × 17 1/4 in.); Framed: 69.9 × 63.5 × 11.5 cm (27 1/2 × 25 × 4 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
Reference Number: 1947.118
Copyright: © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

“Le Cercle Artistique: Lerolle, Chausson, et Foutaine,” Debussy: La Musique et les Arts. Exh. cat. (Musée d’Orsay, 2012), fig. 30.
Antoine Salomon and Guy Cogeval, Vuillard: The Inexhaustible Glance Critical Catalogue of Paintings and Pastels, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira; Paris Wildenstein Institute, 2003), 688 no. VII-300 (color ill.).

Nagaoka, Japan, Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Masterworks of Modern Art from The Art Institute of Chicago, April 20-May 29, 1994; Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, June 10-July 24, 1994; Yokohama Museum of Art, August 6-September 25, 1994.

Purchased from the artist by Bernheim-Jeune, Paris [stock no. 13494], 6 Jan. 1904, 700 francs. Adolphe Tavernier, Paris, 7 Jan. 1904, 850 francs. Tavernier sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 15 Apr. 1907, lot 58 (as La Dame à l’écharpe rose). Galerie Astre, 2,600 francs. Jules Chavasse, Paris. Chavasse sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 22 June 1922, lot 45. S. Sevadjian, Paris, 10,300 francs. Sevadjian sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 2-3 June 1927, lot 43. Dru, Paris, 32,500 francs. De Hauke, New York. Charles H. Worcester, Chicago, 1928; on loan to the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1930; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1947.

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Madame Arthur Fontaine (Marie Escudier Fontaine) in a Pink Shawl

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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