Édouard Vuillard

Arthur Tooth & Sons, London
Edward Hulton, Great Britain, 1951
Mrs. Putnam, London
Marlborough Fine Art, London
Acquired from the above circa 1971

London, Arthur Tooth & Sons, Recent Acquisitions, 1951, no. 17
Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario; San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor; The Art Institute of Chicago, Édouard Vuillard 1868-1940, 1971-72, no. 49
Purchase, The Newberger Museum, The Window in Twentieth Century Art, 1986-87
Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts; Washington, D.C., The Phillips Collection; The Brooklyn Museum, The Intimate Interiors of Édouard Vuillard, 1989-90, no. 78
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Dallas Museum of Art; Bilbao, Fundación del Museo Guggenheim, The Artist and the Camera, Degas to Picasso, 1999-2000, no. 418

Anne Georges, Symbolisme et décor, Vuillard, 1888-1905, Paris, 1982, p. 152
Émilie Daniel, Vuillard, l'espace de l'intimité, Paris, 1984, no. 71, discussed pp. 210 & 212, illustrated
Gloria Lynn Groom, 'Landscape as Decoration; Édouard Vuillard's Île-de-France Paintings for Adam Natanson', Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, 1990, no. 12, illustrated p. 157
Gloria Lynn Groom, Édouard Vuillard Painter-Decorator, Patrons and Projects, 1892-1901, New Haven, 1993, no. 203, illustrated p. 126
Elizabeth Wynne Easton, 'Vuillard's Photography: Artistry and accident', Apollo, 1994, discussed p. 16, illustrated p. 17
Antoine Salomon and Guy Cogeval, Vuillard, The Inexhaustible Glance, Critical Catalogue of Paintings and Pastels, vol. II, Milan, 2003, no. VII-104, illustrated p. 593

This painting is painted on a piece of artist board or mill board, which is a very common support for this particular artist. The paint layer is stable. There is a very slight convex bow to the board yet this is not likely to either increase or decrease. The paint layer appears to be varnished, is also slightly dirty and will respond well to cleaning. In the face of the woman on the right side there are some areas which show darkly under ultraviolet light. These are in a couple of rust colored marks in the eye, in the hair above her forehead and also in some marks which suggest the edge of the hair against the neck and face. Even though these particular areas show strongly under ultraviolet light, they do not appear to be retouches, rather they were applied by the artist himself. The picture will clean well but could also be hung as is. This report has been kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Vuillard's ouevre reveals an unparalleled ability to convey a sense of tranquil intimacy and a harmony between figures and their environment. In à la fenêtre, a brilliant example of this particular ability, he employs a palette of rich hues to capture his sister, Marie, and her daughter, Annette. Through Vuillard's introduction, Marie married fellow Nabi Kerr-Xavier Roussel in 1893 and in November of 1898 Annette was born (see fig. 1). This event had a significant effect on Vuillard and he relished the role of indulgent uncle. The theme of maternity entered into his ouevre at this time and inspired some of the artist's most intimate and profound portrayals of human interaction. In their catalogue raisonné on the artist, Antoine Salomon and Guy Cogeval discuss the theme of maternity in A la fenêtre, "... this painting has all the grace of an Annunciation. A thin line of light marks the profil perdu of Marie, lost in contemplation of the landscape that stretches away beyond the window. The composition calls to mind a number of contemporaneous works by Maurice Denis on the same theme and imbued with religious feeling . . . Nothing in the composition of this painting has been left to chance, be it the winding path, the innocent child or the questioning gaze of the mother, which we sense but do not see" (Antoine Salomon and Guy Cogeval, op. cit., p. 593).

The setting for this work is the country house in L'Étang-La-Ville that the Roussels rented in the summers of 1899 and 1900. Vuillard, as well as other Nabi artists, often visited the house during these years. Concurrent with the theme of maternity, the countryside became a prominent feature for the artist at this time. Where he had previously focused on interior settings, he now turned to the lush landscape in L'Étang-La-Ville for inspiration. As Salomon and Cogeval describe, "This time the countryside came completely into its own in his painting and he paid careful attention to rendering nature; his vegetation became less and less symbolic... the focus on the real appearance of things is intensified, although [it] is still far from naturalist" (ibid, p. 540). In à la fenêtre, Vuillard draws together both the verdant environs and the warm interior of this setting with a unifying and subtly powerful palette.

Figure 1 Edouard Vuillard, Photograph of Kerr-Xavier Roussel and Marie with their daughter Annette, 1898