Place Vintimille by Edouard Vuillard

Self-Portrait, Aged 21 by Edouard Vuillard

Edouard Vuillard, Self-Portrait, Aged 21, 1889, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1995.47.15

Biography

Edouard Vuillard was born in 1868 in Cuiseaux, a tiny French town near the Swiss border. At age nine, he moved with his family to Paris. His father, a retired army officer, died several years later, leaving his mother, Marie, with three children and only a small income. She came from a family of textile designers, and to make a living she first operated a lingerie shop and then a dressmaking business from the succession of Paris apartments that the family occupied. Edouard lived with his mother, his greatest supporter, for her entire life, surrounded by the women and fabrics that filled her work room.