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:

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

Édouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,The Metropolitan Museum of Art (detail)

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

Garden at Vaucresson

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The End

Sources:

• Ives, Colta. Public Parks, Private Gardens: Paris to Provence. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018, p 94, https://books.google.com/books?id=wJJNDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false (accessed Oct 9, 2018).
• TheMet, “Garden at Vaucresson, 1923,” by Édouard Vuillard, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/488693, (accessed Oct 9, 2018).