Dining Room, Rue de Naples, Paris

1935

French, 1868 - 1940

Vuillard painted domestic interiors throughout his career. As a student he was familiar with contemporary Impressionist examples, and he took a special interest in works by 17th-century Dutch and 18th-century French painters. In 1889 he banded with Paul Sérusier, Maurice Denis, and others in an avant-garde group called “Les Nabis” (The Prophets). Their goal was to make flat shapes the basis of a composition, calling attention to the interactions between expressive contours and arresting colors. Vuillard was sixty-six—and a respected establishment figure—when he painted this canvas. Dining Room, portraying the home of longtime family friends, exemplifies the style he had perfected in the 1910s: sensuous and gentle responses to color, light, and form, and a quiet testimonial to the private comforts of a prosperous life.

Oil on cardboard

36 1/2 x 31 1/2 in. (92.7 x 80cm)

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Prentice Bloedel

91.15

Provenance: The artist; collection of Jacques Lindon (?-2003), New York, until May 27, 1954; consigned to [M. Knoedler & Co., New York, stock no. CA4601, May 27, 1954 - Nov. 11, 1954]; sold to Virginia Merrill (Mrs. Prentice Bloedel, 1902-1989), Bainbridge Island, Nov. 11, 1954 - Feb. 4, 1991; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1991

Photo: Mark Woods

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Media

FOR SAM’S MY FAVORITE THINGS SERIES IN 2016, ARTIST BARBARA EARL THOMAS DISCUSSES HER ATTRACTION TO THE COLOR AND LINEAR PERSPECTIVE OF EDOUARD VUILLARD’S DINING ROOM, RUE DE NAPLES, PARIS.

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Five Installations on the Fourth Floor: Aspects of Late-Nineteenth-Century Art, 1997.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, French Painting from SAM's Permanent Collection, Apr. 23, 2005 - Jan. 2, 2006.

Published ReferencesMarx, Claude Roger. Edouard Vuillard, 1867-1940. Gazette des Beaux-Arts, June 1946; reproduced p. 375, fig. 15, as Madame Hessel and her Daughter lunching, about 1935.

Marx, Claude Roger. Vuillard: His Life and Work. Paris: Arts et Metiers Graphiques, 1948; p. 69, reproduced pl. 61.

Salomon, Antoine and Guy Cogeval. Vuillard: Catalogue critique des peintures et pastels, Vol. III. Paris: Skira and Wildenstein Institute, 2003; cat. no. XII-136, reproduced p. 1527.

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