Édouard Vuillard: Garden at Vaucresson (1923)

Garden_at_Vaucresson_MET_DT2555_1
Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

According to Colta Ives (2018), “The enormous appeal of gardens in the early twentieth century, especially to women of means, found frequent expression in the work of Édouard Vuillard, ” (C. Ives, p. 94).

This painting was begun in 1920 at Vaucresson, a residential suburb west of Paris, where Vuillard’s friends Lucy and Josse (Jos) Hessel had recently purchased the house depicted in the background. Jos, a partner in the art firm of Bernheim-Jeune, had become Vuillard’s dealer in 1912. His wife was one of Vuillard’s great loves; their relationship spanned more than three decades, until the artist’s death in 1940. The woman in a housedress standing at right is Lucy’s cousin Marcelle Aron. Lucy kneels across from her, at left, camouflaged by one of the large rosebushes that serve as a decorative screen in the foreground. Quote from TheMet

Click for Enlarged Detail:

Slideshow best viewed At Sunnyside

Garden at Vaucresson

  • Artist: Édouard Vuillard (French, Cuiseaux 1868–1940 La Baule)
  • Date: 1920; reworked 1926, 1935, 1936
  • Medium: Distemper on canvas
  • Dimensions: 59 1/2 x 43 5/8 in. (151.1 x 110.8 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1952

For More Information

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~Sunnyside

4 Comments Add yours

  1. Magnificent, thanks for the introduction and paintings themselves!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. You are kind to comment – thank you for visiting! 🙂

      Like

  2. JMN says:

    I’m laughing at myself! Now I see her after several minutes of befuddled scrutiny. This beautiful painting could be the basis of a “Where’s Lucy?” game! 🙂 The word “camouflaged” used in the commentary is fitting.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. LOL! I know how you feel — I didn’t find the second woman for a long time….:-)

      Liked by 1 person

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