Edouard Vuillard
Nabi painter of rooms so densely patterned that the people almost disappear into the wallpaper.
Edouard Vuillard was born at Cuiseaux in 1868 and grew up above his mother's corset-making workshop in Paris, surrounded by fabric — which is the whole explanation for the paintings. He joined the Nabis with Bonnard and Denis, and in the 1890s made small, intensely patterned interiors on card in which figures, wallpaper, dresses and furniture are woven into a single surface and a woman can be genuinely difficult to find. He also produced some of the finest colour lithographs of the decade. His later society portraits and decorative panels are a different and quieter proposition. He died in 1940.
The intimiste works of the 1890s lead the market decisively. Vuillard worked frequently in distemper and in oil on card and board, and both present real condition issues: distemper is matt, water-soluble and cannot be cleaned, and card supports warp, crack and suffer at the corners. The Salomon and Cogeval catalogue raisonne is the reference. Landmarks in the printed output are the Paysages et Interieurs album published by Vollard, where lifetime impressions and complete albums are what matter.
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