Place Vintimille by Edouard Vuillard

Project for a Screen by Edouard Vuillard

Edouard Vuillard, Project for a Screen, c. 1892-1893, pastel, Galerie Hopkins-Thomas-Custot, Paris

Vuillard introduced several innovations to screenmaking. The unequal size of the panels in this pastel study for Five-Panel Screen was new. This screen was to be used in a dressing area by people of different heights. The subject of the screen, women in a dressmaker's shop, is appropriate to its dressing room location. By moving from four to five panels, Vuillard increased the number of ways a screen could be folded; five panels offered interesting, asymmetrical compositions not available in a four-panel screen.