Édouard Vuillard

Estate of the artist
Marie Vuillard Roussel, Paris (by descent from the above)
Jacques Roussel, Paris (by descent from the above)
Sam Salz, New York (acquired from the above)
Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above on June 1, 1965)
Thence by descent

Toulouse, Salon de La Dépêche, 1894, no. 88
Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 1947

Claude Roger-Marx, Vuillard, His Life and Work, Paris, 1946, p. 46
Anne Georges, Symbolisme et décor, Vuillard, 1888-1905, Paris, 1982, p. 70
Patricia Eckert Boyer, Artists and the Avant-garde Theater in Paris, 1887-1900. The Martin and Liane W. Atlas Collection (exhibition catalogue), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, illustrated p. 107
Antoine Salomon & Guy Cogeval, Vuillard, The Inexhaustible Glance, Critical Catalogue of Paintings and Pastels, vol. I, Milan, 2003, no. V-36, illustrated p. 386

The work is in very good condition. The board is sound. It is laid down on cradeled oak panel which also protects the edges of the board. There is a layer of varnish on the surface which is slightly dirty. Some minor frame abrasion is visible along the bottom edge and there is an artist's pinhole at the center of the top edge. Wear is visible to all four corners and there is small imperfection in the board at the center of the left edge which appears original. Under UV light: the varnish layer is difficult to read through, but no in-painting is apparent.
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 painted Réunion électorale in 1893, during what is considered to be one of the most significant points in his career. During this period the artist was a key member of the Nabis, an artist group including the Paul Sérusier, Félix Vallatton and Maurice Denis, whose color-saturated paintings were features at the Exposition des peintres impressionistes et symbolistes in 1892 in Paris. Critics praised Vuillard's compositions in particular for their perspective and subtlety, and were impressed by their modest scale that earned the artist the label intimiste. In 1894 he participated in another critically acclaimed exhibition of the Nabis at the offices of the Toulouse-based newspaper La Dépêche, where the present work was exhibited.  

Vuillard's affiliation with the Nabis exposed his to the cross-section of the avant-garde, including Thadée Natanson, the publisher of the cultural periodical La Revue Blanche, and members of the Parisian theater community who commissioned him to design production sets for plays by Ibsen and Meaterlinck. Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People, wherein Dr. Stockman is accused of poisoning the town's hot springs by its citizens, may well have been the inspiration for the present work. The present composition depicts a political gathering of the kind Vuillard might well have attended given his involvement with the Parisian intelligentsia. Arthur Huc, director of La Dépêche, praised the work and said Vuillard "supremely masters his palette and brush, as is proved by his Electoral Meeting, in which, with only a few splashed of color and without laboring the drawing, the painter has given us the sensation of an incredibly swarming crowd" (quoted in Antoine Salomon & Guy Cogeval, op. cit., p. 386).