Flowers On A Stool c. 1903 - 1904

Édouard Vuillard made this small painting of flowers on a stool with oil on cardboard. It's like a little burst of domestic joy rendered with a real sense of the handmade. Look closely, and you’ll see the material is really present. Vuillard doesn’t try to hide the process. He uses these visible, choppy brushstrokes. The colors are muted but somehow still manage to create this feeling of warmth. The cardboard support peeks through in places, adding to the overall texture and giving it a kind of raw, immediate feel. I love the way the patterned fabric draped over the stool contrasts with the softness of the flowers. There's this constant play between the hard and the soft, the abstract and the representational. Vuillard reminds me of Bonnard, another artist who found poetry in the everyday. They both show how painting can be this ongoing experiment, a space where seeing and feeling become one.