Atelier Vuillard

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A woman pushes aside a deep golden yellow curtain that fills three-quarters of this nearly square painting. The curtain runs on a rod parallel and close to the top of the canvas, extends off the right edge, and falls behind a bed covered in the same color. The bed is cropped by the bottom and left edges of the painting, and a brown, arched wood footboard almost reaches the right side. The woman stands on the far side of the bed, facing away from us as she pulls at the curtain with her right hand. She wears a navy-blue dress and a brown braid falls down her back. She reveals an area covered in a pink, green, and white floral pattern that seems to match the size of the curtain, at least along the left edge where it is exposed. A round mirror hangs on the floral-patterned area above a red piece of furniture, perhaps a small table or stool. The wall around the patterned area and curtain is painted bone white. A line incised in the paint running from the top left corner of the floral area to the top edge of the canvas suggests a crack in the wall. The paint is loosely applied so brushstrokes are visible throughout, especially in the floral pattern. The artist’s signature is painted in red in the lower left corner: "E. Vuillard."
Edouard Vuillard, The Yellow Curtain, c. 1893, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.95

The Yellow Curtain

Edouard Vuillard · c. 1893 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.95

A child and man stand facing away from us in this vertical painting. The scene is painted with visible dabs, stipples, and strokes of paint, and many details, especially in the distance, are indistinct. A young girl is to the left, a blue band holding back her long brown hair. Despite the title of this painting, Child Wearing a Red Scarf, she wears a bulky, pumpkin-orange scarf around her neck over an ankle-length dress dotted with red. Streaks of brown suggest shoes under the lower hem. The person to our right wears dark trousers, a brown, long-sleeved shirt, and olive-green shoes outlined with black. This person’s right leg and head above the shoulders are cropped by the composition. A peach area suggests that the girl holds the hand or something by the man’s pants pocket but this area is difficult to read. The ground is ecru white, and loosely painted forms along the top of the composition suggest people standing and the room in the distance. The artist signed to top right corner, “E Vuillard.”
Edouard Vuillard, Child Wearing a Red Scarf, c. 1891, oil on cardboard, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.90

Child Wearing a Red Scarf

Edouard Vuillard · c. 1891 · oil on cardboard ·  Accession ID  1970.17.90

Painted with wide strokes in almost geometric areas of mottled color, a woman wearing a long black dress stands at the side of a table in this stylized, vertical composition. The table stretches two-thirds of the way across the painting from the right edge, and the woman stands at the left side so her lower body is partially behind the table. Her copper-brown hair appears to be pulled up, and her face is painted as a peach-colored profile but without features. Her hands rest on the table near a white plate holding six yellow orbs, presumably fruit. To the right of the plate is a light brown object lined with orange along its left side, but this form is difficult to interpret because the painting is done in such a broad style. Along the left edge of the painting, a dark, pecan-brown door opens next to a rectangular object, probably a clock, on the beige-colored wall behind the woman and table. The floor is a shade between dusky green and brown. The left edge of the cardboard on which this is painted appears streaked, perhaps lightly or incompletely filled in. The artist signed the lower left corner, “E. Vuillard.
Edouard Vuillard, Woman in Black, c. 1891, oil on cardboard, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.93

Woman in Black

Edouard Vuillard · c. 1891 · oil on cardboard ·  Accession ID  1970.17.93

Edouard Vuillard, Woman at Her Toilette, c. 1891, oil on cardboard, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.91

Woman at Her Toilette

Edouard Vuillard · c. 1891 · oil on cardboard ·  Accession ID  1970.17.91

Edouard Vuillard, Au Théâtre Antoine, c. 1889, brush and black ink over graphite on brown paper, Gift of Jeffrey Atlas in memory of his mother Liane Atlas, 2018.200.1

Au Théâtre Antoine

Edouard Vuillard · c. 1889 · brush and black ink over graphite on brown paper ·  Accession ID  2018.200.1