Intérieur D’auberge, Maquette De Décor Pour ‘la Lépreuse’ 1919

Édouard Vuillard made this stage set design for ‘la Lépreuse’ using oil paint, and it’s like a little world in itself. Look at how the marks aren't trying to hide what they are; they build up and create a feeling, a place. The colors, mostly muted browns and grays, give a sense of being in a rustic, maybe even slightly worn-down, space. But then there’s that pop of red, just a disc, that throws everything off balance. It’s like a visual hiccup that draws you in. The paint is put on pretty thin in places, and you can see how he layered it to get the shadows and light. There is a real tension between the flatness of the surface and the depth of the space that he creates. Vuillard makes me think of Bonnard, and how they both used color and light to make these intimate, domestic scenes feel alive. I like how they embraced ambiguity, leaving room for us to bring our own interpretations to the table.