Édouard Vuillard

Antoine Salomon and Guy Cogeval, Vuillard, The Inexhaustible Glance, Critical Catalogue of Paintings and Pastels, vol. 2,  Paris, 2003, no. IX-111, illustrated p. 1081

The model in the present work is most likely Maud Grandidier, a young woman about whom very little is known, but whose brooding air, lovely skin and large, expressive eyes could not quickly be forgotten. She is often depicted by Vuillard as a sort of fausse ingénue, a pose which would soon become the persona of choice among French cinema stars in the 1930s. In the present work the model’s casual pose indicates a moment of rest, although the wide-brimmed hat and carefully applied make up indicate she might perhaps be prepared for a more formal occasion. Vuillard pays careful attention to her most alluring features, outlining her lustrous eyes and adding color to her sensuous mouth.

Writing about Vuillard’s work in December 1913, the critic Arsène Alexandre observed, “There are artists whose formation, development and zenith form a whole that is in itself as harmonious as a work of art. Édouard Vuillard is one such. The continuity, logic and refinement of his work place him among the finest minds of our age. In its range and breadth, its single-mindedness and freedom, power and beauty, its increasing breadth of vision and quiet eloquence, it proclaims its author to be one of the most original and penetrating artists of the school that succeeded the Impressionist movement. He is now truly at the height of his powers; the delightful style we knew has become a flexible, wide-ranging language unique to him and enriched by him, which he alone can use. The feeling of life that enchanted us twenty years ago in his judiciously reserved earlier style has become life itself,  in an illusion achieved by the most subtle and unusual means. This is what we understand by illusion in art.” (Arsène Alexandre, “La vie artistique: peintures d’Édouard Vuillard,” Le Figaro, December 21, 1913)