Edouard Vuillard an intimate prophet from “Nabis”

Woman in a loose blouse
Woman in a loose blouse

Edouard Vuillard French painter, decorator and engraver of the late XIX early XX century. Vuillard’s work is closely associated with milestones in his biography, reflecting the stages of trial and experiment in the genres of impressionism, post-impressionism and realism. Edouard Vuillard’s paintings represent an amazing fusion of man with the world of objects and interiors, through which the inner state of the hero, his mood and character traits are revealed.

He said: “I do not make portraits, I paint people in their homes.” Each picture immerses the viewer in the plot, erases social boundaries, reveals something personal, intimate: women at handicrafts, a pattern on shawls, park landscapes and quiet bedrooms. The master’s archive contains not only figures and portraits surrounded by interiors. But also numerous still lifes, illustrations, prints, wall compositions and theatrical scenery.

Vuillard The Reader, 1896
Vuillard The Reader, 1896

Biography

Edouard Vuillard was born in the small town of Cuizot in eastern France on November 11, 1868. After 9 years, the family moved to Paris. Young Edouard spends most of his time with women: mothers, grandmothers and older sisters, who are engaged in sewing clothes and handicrafts. In the future, female images will become an integral part of his works.

Quiet measured life in a house full of multi-colored fabrics, threads and braids promoted diligence, the development of good taste and correct perception of colors, and the variety of textures and styles immersed young Edouard in the world of details.

Having successfully graduated from school and received a prestigious scholarship to study at the Lycee Condorcet, the future master studies rhetoric and art, makes the first drawings, distinguished by small details and similar tones. At the Lyceum, he decides to become an artist. Here also happens the fateful acquaintance with Pierre Weber, Aurelien Francois Marie Lugne-Poe.

vuillard the blue vase c1930
vuillard the blue vase c1930

In 1885, Edouard Vuillard studied at the art school

There he met Pierre Bonnard, and then at the Academie Julian. In 1887, after a series of unsuccessful attempts, he became a student at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he studied academic sciences. Vuillard visits the studios of renowned artists Robert de Fleury and William-Adolphe Bouguereau.

In 1889, the young painter joined the informal art association “Nabis” (Les Nabis, translated from French as “Prophets”), which already included his friends. Carried away on a par with other stuffed works by Paul Gauguin (Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin). Edouard Vuillard also interprets Japanese prints, develops his own style. The master’s work acquires a pronounced decorative character, in which patterns and details become more important than faces. For the inner world of the heroes of the painter that opens up in the paintings, they are called “intimate Nabis”.

Vuillard Madame Arthur Fontaine, 1904-05, gouache and oil on
Vuillard Madame Arthur Fontaine, 1904-05, gouache and oil on

After the breakup of the group in 1900, Vuillard travels a lot, taking inspiration from the landscapes of Venice, Normandy and Brittany. Deliberately deviates from new trends in art gives creative priorities to realism. Pictures acquire depth and volume, which were not in previous works. The compositions become larger and more monumental. Now their purpose is large country houses, theaters, palaces.

With the outbreak of World War II and the approach of the German army, Edouard Vuillard was forced to leave Paris and died on June 21. 1940 in La Baule-Escoublac in western France.

Vuillard Eduard Mother and child Sun
Vuillard Eduard Mother and child Sun

The most famous paintings by Edouard Vuillard

Edouard Vuillard’s paintings delight connoisseurs of art with the splendor of freedom of inspiration, the purity of the palette. Most of the works of art are collected in the Paris museums of Orsay (Musee d’Orsay) and Petit Palais (Musee du Petit Palais). Some works are kept in the Museum of Toulouse-Lautrec (Musee Toulouse-Lautrec) in Albi, European and American exhibition centers, private collections.

The most famous of them:
  1. Interior. Mother and Sister of the Artist (1893) is a socially poignant, daring and technically elegant piece that exposes personal relationships and evokes feelings of awkwardness and anxiety.
  2. “Woman in a striped blouse” (Femme en chemisier raye; 1895) with light strokes in a palette of two colors on a decorative ceramic plate, the artist depicted the contours of a woman in a striped blouse.
  3. “Characters in the Interior” (Personnages dans un interieur; 1896) is one of four decorative panels made in the home of the cardiologist Anri Vakes.
  4. “In the Garden” (Dans le jardin; 1898) unpainted areas of cardboard set the tone of the picture, emphasize the fleetingness of the moment. The paint has only an auxiliary function it helps to see the details of the landscape: clods of earth, garden furniture, folds of clothes.
  5. “Misia Nathanson and Felix Vallotton in Villeneuve” (Misia Nathanson et Felix Vallotton a Villeneuve; 1899) is the most expensive painting by the artist, sold by Christie’s in 2017 for 17 million. The main character of the picture is Misia Nathanson, the artist’s muse.
  6. “Grand Teddy” (Le Grand Teddy; 1918) the largest (150×290 cm) of three oval paintings, painted for the Parisian tea rooms Grand Teddy. Until 1922 it was housed on the wall of a cafe surrounded by smaller landscape ovals.
Morning in the garden
Morning in the garden
Annette Roussel with a broken chair
Annette Roussel with a broken chair
End of breakfast Madame Vuillard
End of breakfast Madame Vuillard
Lady at the piano
Lady at the piano
Living room with three lamps
Living room with three lamps
Madame Hessel
Madame Hessel
Margaret plays with her puppy
Margaret plays with her puppy
Like this post? Please share to your friends:
Culturical