Vuillard, Édouard

Vuillard, Édouard (1868–1940). French painter, draughtsman, designer, and lithographer, born in Cuiseaux, Saône-et-Loire. His family moved to Paris when he was 10 and he went to school with Maurice Denis and Ker-Xavier Roussel (his future brother-in-law). All three of them studied at the Académie Julian, and together with other students—including Bonnard, Sérusier, and Vallotton—formed a group of painters called the Nabis, whose work was predominantly Symbolist. The group flourished throughout the 1890s, and at this time Vuillard painted intimate interiors and scenes from Montmartre, his sensitive patterning of flattish colours owing something to Gauguin but creating a distinctive manner of his own. He also designed posters and theatrical sets. From about 1900 he turned to a more naturalistic style and with Bonnard he became the main practitioner of Intimisme, making use of the camera to capture fleeting, informal groupings of his friends and relatives in the intimate settings of their homes and gardens. He had several close female friends and preferred painting women and children to men. His work also included landscapes and portraits. Although he was financially successful, he lived modestly, sharing an apartment with his widowed mother until her death in 1928; she often features in his paintings. He was reserved and quiet in personality, although affectionate and much liked. After the First World War he seldom showed his paintings, except at the gallery of his dealer Bernheim-Jeune, and his subsequent work remained little known to the public until a retrospective exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 1938. Shortly before this he had done decorative paintings for the Palais des Nations at Geneva (1936) and the Palais de Chaillot in Paris (1937), in both cases working with Roussel. He died at La Baule while fleeing the German invasion. For many years he kept a detailed journal (there are 48 volumes of it in the Institut de France, Paris), in which he revealed his thoughtful attitude towards art and life.