NARRATOR:
Two women, hunched over their sewing, work quietly in a small alcove. Its curtains catch the harsh light of a kerosene lamp, then open into a dark interior beyond. Everything is reduced to decorative patches and vibrant color that borders on abstraction. The women, fabrics, and furniture even the light itself are all treated as if they were made of the same malleable, expressive substance.
Edouard Vuillard’s painting depicts the small apartment he shared with his mother, grandmother and young sister in Paris. Mme. Vuillard had turned the family home into a seamstress shop, and it was in this world, surrounded by female assistants and colorful fabrics, that Vuillard began his career as a painter.
He created this work in the early 1890s, shortly after becoming a member of an avant-garde group known as the Nabis—a term derived from the Hebrew and Arabic word for “prophet.” The Nabis were greatly inspired by the French painter Paul Gauguin, who was creating remarkably experimental works, using flat areas of pure color. Like other Nabis, Vuillard used luminous colors directly from the tube, just as Gauguin had instructed. Vuillard observed:
EDOUARD VUILLARD [ACTOR]:
“A shape, a color exists only in relationship to another. Form alone does not exist. All we can understand is relationships.”
Dressmakers under the Lamp
c. 1891-1892
Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868-1940)
On View
Vuillard’s father died when he was sixteen, leaving his mother to support the family as a dressmaker. She worked at home in a series of small Parisian apartments she shared with her son. This dimly lit scene, intimate to the point of claustrophobia, suggests the long hours she kept and the cramped conditions of her labor. Coupling family intimacy with a sense of foreboding, the picture is typical of the artist’s early work. Close contact with his mother’s trade—fabric, color, pattern, and silhouette—left an enduring mark on Vuillard’s style, still evident in much later works of far grander scale and ambition.
Details
- Artist Name: Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868-1940)
- Title: Dressmakers under the Lamp
- Date: c. 1891-1892
- Medium: Oil on cardboard
- Dimensions: 9-5/8 x 10-1/2 in. (24.4 x 26.7 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
- Accession Number: M.1979.41.2.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
The artist’s studio, to;
Private Collection, Paris (probably Ker-Xavier Roussel) by 1943, to;
Jacques Salomon (son-in-law of Roussel), by 1955;
[Galerie La Cave, Paris, sold 1 October 1979 to];
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Private Collection, Paris (probably Ker-Xavier Roussel) by 1943, to;
Jacques Salomon (son-in-law of Roussel), by 1955;
[Galerie La Cave, Paris, sold 1 October 1979 to];
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
L'Ecole de Pont-Aven et les Nabis
- Paris, Galerie Parvillée, 1943 to
Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940) Charles Hug
- Kunsthalle Basel, 1949-03-26 to 1949-05-01
Edouard Vuillard
- Palazzo Reale, 1959-10 to 1959-11
Exposition Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940): Peintures, aquarelles, dessins
- Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, 1960-07-11 to 1960-09-25
Bonnard, Vuillard et les Nabis (1888-1903)
- Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, 1955-06-02 to 1955-10-02
By Day & By Night: Paris in the Belle Époque
- Norton Simon Museum, 2019-10-04 to 2020-03-02
Reinstallation of South Wing
- Norton Simon Museum, 1993-10-07 to 1995-08-13
- Chastel, André, Art News Annual, p. 48
- The French Impressionists in Southern California: Paintings, Sculptures and Prints in Public Collections. A Guide Book and Catalogue, 1984,
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, 1989, p. 171
- Easton, E. W., The Intimate Interiors of Edouard Vuillard, 1989, fig. 23 p. 44
- Cogeval, Guy, Vuillard. Le temps détourné, 1993,
- Salomon, Antoine; and Cogeval, Guy, Edouard Vuillard Catalogue Raisonne: Paintings and Pastels, 2003, fig. IV-77 p. 269
- 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. 1638 p. 429
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
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