1985.R.85 Vuillard, The Little Restaurant | DMA Staging Content Management System

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Edouard Vuillard was the master of Parisian observation. The decade of his greatest accomplishments was the 1890s, when this small painting was made. Vuillard's paintings at that time were either very large decorations, commissioned to fit into domestic environments, or tiny cardboard concoctions whose modesty of scale was matched by a modesty of subject. In most cases, Vuillard preferred to represent the interiors of petit-bourgeois Paris, and his small rooms, stuffed with furniture and papered with wonderful patterns, have joined the canon of modern art.

This painting on cardboard is something of an exception in Vuillard's production of the 1890s in that it represents a public rather than a private place. Nevertheless, it remains a supreme example of interior genre, focusing not on a public moment but on a quiet domestic scene that Vuillard observed in a restaurant. Vuillard "sets" the painting's space so that we imagine ourselves entering the little restaurant. The light-filled windows suggest the scene occurs on a weekend afternoon when both parents can partake in a leisurely family meal. Vuillard pays close attention to the relationship between the mother and her baby, to the curiosity of the little girl, who leans her arms on the table, and to the family dog, who waits in anticipation for the baby to drop some food.

Always childless, Vuillard was a doting uncle to his one niece and frequently painted children. Indeed, if Vuillard had a signature figure in his paintings of the 1890s, it was a little girl, and this one, with her dark black eyes and mop of unruly hair, is among his most charming.

Adapted from

Richard Brettell, Impressionist Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture from the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection, (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 1995), 113.

NOTES

Updated provenance, exhibition history, published references according to the most recent research document in object file, dated 2009.

email BMac to fix the citation of Brettell in public notes, two typos in the text.

What is "paper board panel" and does it significantly differ from cardboard? Question arose when I searched for paper board panel in Getty AAT and the results included cardboard. Brettell's description also cites the support as cardboard.

Provenance (not public)

c. 1900-1901: Edouard Vuillard, Paris [1]

n.d.: Alfred Daber, Paris [2]

By 1938-1955: Georges Renand, Paris [3]

After 1955: Jacques Blot (dealer), Paris, purchased from the above [4]

n.d.: Wendy (1916-2007) and Emery Reves (1904-1981), Villa La Pausa, Roquebrune, France

From 1985: Dallas Museum of Art, gift from the above

[1] The date of this painting is given as "circa 1897-1899" by Mathias Chivot, of the Catalogue Raisonné Edouard Vuillard (Paris), correspondence from November 27, 2000 in the Collections Records Object File. This date was revised based on visual analysis and subject identification performed by Belinda Thomson, 2010.

[2] As stated in the A. Salomon and G. Cogeval, Vuillard, the inexhaustible glance: critical catalogue of paintings and pastels, volume II, (New York: 2003), 937. (Color illustration) No other information is provided.

[3] Renand lent the painting to the 1938 and the 1955 exhibitions.

[4] Mathias Chivot, of the Catalogue Raisonné Edouard Vuillard (Paris), states that Renand owned the work until 1955. The painting was then sold to the dealer Jacques Blot. Correspondence from November 27, 2000 in the Collections Records Object File.

Catalogue essays

People in Rooms: Four Paintings by Edouard Vuillard

Reves Collection

Artist/designers

Vuillard, Edouard (French, 1868-1940)

Cultures

Geography

Produced-Paris

Depicted- Paris

Process/materials

oil paint

cardboard

Historical periods

Belle Epoque (France, 1890-1914)

Individuals

Subject terms

Impressionism

Impressionist

carafes

chairs

children

daughter

curtains

dog

food

hat

women

restaurant

tables

vases

men

yellow

perspective

interior spaces

Nabis-R

Intimist (Intimisme)

RELATED OBJECTS

PROVENANCE

AUDIO ASSETS

Belinda Thomson, "Edouard Vuillard: Exploring the Limits of Intimism," lecture April 1, 2010, Dallas Museum of Art. Transcribed. (Lecture was one of two delivered on the same evening. Dr. Thomson gave her presentation first.)

13315520: UMO

Object number entered in Piction. Deleting UMO tag from this object note.

VIDEO ASSETS

IMAGE ASSETS

WEB RESOURCES

ARCHIVAL RESOURCES

FUN FACTS

Another example of Vuillard's use of cardboard as a painting surface is Interior (1981.137) which has areas of minimal paint where the brown-toned material shows through.

TEACHING IDEAS

RULES

Apply to objects where number equals 1985.R.85

General Description

Edouard Vuillard was the master of Parisian observation. The decade of his greatest accomplishments was the 1890s, when this small painting was made. Vuillard's paintings at that time were either very large decorations, commissioned to fit into domestic environments, or tiny cardboard concoctions whose modesty of scale was matched by a modesty of subject. In most cases, Vuillard preferred to represent the interiors of petit-bourgeois Paris, and his small rooms, stuffed with furniture and papered with wonderful patterns, have joined the canon of modern art.

This painting on cardboard is something of an exception in Vuillard's production of the 1890s in that it represents a public rather than a private place. Nevertheless, it remains a supreme example of interior genre, focusing not on a public moment but on a quiet domestic scene that Vuillard observed in a restaurant. Vuillard "sets" the painting's space so that we imagine ourselves entering the little restaurant. The light-filled windows suggest the scene occurs on a weekend afternoon when both parents can partake in a leisurely family meal. Vuillard pays close attention to the relationship between the mother and her baby, to the curiosity of the little girl, who leans her arms on the table, and to the family dog, who waits in anticipation for the baby to drop some food.