Édouard Vuillard

Tokoro Gallery, Tokyo (1979)
Private Collection, Japan
Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 22, 1985, lot 48
Galerie Salis & Vertes, Salzburg
Private Collection (sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 13, 1990, lot 43, titled Petite déjuener à Villerville)
Private Collection, USA (acquired at the above sale)
Acquired from the above by the present owners

Antoine Salomon and Guy Cogeval, Vuillard, The Inexhaustible Glance, Critical Catalogue of Paintings and Pastels, vol. II,  Paris, 2003, no. 376, illustrated p. 998

The present work was executed at Les Pavillons, a villa in Cricqueboeuf, Normandy.  Vuillard stayed there from July to September 13, 1910, along with his family and the Hessels. Jos Hessel was a prominent art dealer, who along with his brother Gaston ran their family’s gallery, Bernheim-Jeune.  

Le petit déjeuner aux Pavillons, is a prime example of Vuillard’s mature style.  Even though it is painted in a more conservative manner, the artist succeeded in retaining many of the characteristics of his work from his celebrated Nabis period.  Earlier in his career the decorative flatness of his compositions had given a formal unit to the wide variety of highly patterned surfaces that competed for attention.  Two decades later the attraction of colorful fabrics and cluttered interiors had not disappeared.  

Fig. 1  Édouard Vuillard, Romain Coolus, Lucy Hessel, Marcelle Aron, Tristan Bernard and Alfred Natanson in front of the villa Les Pavillons at Cricqueboeuf in Normandy.