Lucie Hessel
c. 1905
Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868-1940)
On View

Vuillard liked to say, “I do not paint portraits. I paint people in their homes.” And indeed, pictures like this one enlist domestic surroundings to suggest their sitters’ personalities and relationships to the artist. Here casually posed in a room crowded with picture frames, Lucie Hessel was the wife of Vuillard’s dealer. She was also the artist’s friend, his confidant, his muse and, ultimately, his lover, the subject of over a hundred paintings. An inscription in the upper right-hand corner of this portrait indicates that Vuillard painted it as a gift for her.

Details

  • Artist Name: Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868-1940)
  • Title: Lucie Hessel
  • Date: c. 1905
  • Medium: Oil on cardboard
  • Dimensions: 16 x 18 in. (40.6 x 45.7 cm)
  • Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
  • Accession Number: M.1977.01.P
  • Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation

Object Information

Jos (d. 1942) and Lucie Hessel, Paris, ca. 1900, still in 1930.
Louis Carré, Paris.
Vivian Prins, London.
[Lefévre Gallery, London, sold 6 January 1977 to];
Norton Simon Art Foundation.

Vuillard

  • Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 1948 to

By Day & By Night: Paris in the Belle Époque

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2019-10-04 to 2020-03-02

Gaze: Portraiture After Ingres

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2009-10-30 to 2010-04-05

Reinstallation of South Wing

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1993-10-07 to 1995-08-13
  • Bernard, Tristan, La Renaissance, p. 22
  • Wichmann, Die Kunst und das schöne Heim, pp. 354-357
  • Salomon, Antoine; and Cogeval, Guy, Edouard Vuillard Catalogue Raisonne: Paintings and Pastels, fig. VII-345 p. 712
  • Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, 1989, p. 171
  • Chastel, André, Vuillard, 1990, pp. 60, 70-71
  • Brettell, Richard R. and Stephen F. Eisenman, Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum, volume 1, 2006,
  • Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 1395 p. 402
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Additional Artwork by Artist

Landscapes and Interiors: Across the Fields (Paysages et Intérieurs: À Travers Champs) Édouard Vuillard 1899
Landscapes and Interiors: Album Cover (Paysages et Intérieurs: Couverture de l’Album) Édouard Vuillard 1899
Landscapes and Interiors: Interior with Hanging Lamp (Paysages et Intérieurs: Intérieur à la Suspension) Édouard Vuillard 1899

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