A founding member of the Nabis movement in the late 1880s, Vuillard was among those artists who celebrated pattern and ornament in art and he was ambitious in terms of incorporating of decorative motifs into his canvases. As the son of a dressmaker he had a head-start in terms of understanding textiles and his paintings reflect a fascination with all kinds of fabrics, particularly the rich colors of the wallpaper and carpets of the haute bourgeoisie. A bright vase of flowers set against muted floral decoration is a conceit he experimented more than once (see fig. 1). In the present work the stack of papers on the worn wooden table and the earthy tones of the ceramic vase emphasize variation in surface texture, while the dynamic angle of the table is typical of Vuillard’s intimate interiors which are often cropped abruptly with some elements partially obscured to create a sense of immediacy.