Madame Vuillard at Table 1888

Édouard Vuillard painted Madame Vuillard at Table, using oil on cardboard, sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. Vuillard was part of the Nabis, a group of Post-Impressionist avant-garde artists who wanted art to reflect personal expression and the spirituality of the everyday. This painting reflects the Nabis style, its intimate domestic scene speaking to the group’s intention to bring art into the home. Painted in France, the loose brushstrokes and flattened perspective of the painting also speak to wider currents in French art at the time, such as Impressionism and Japonisme. Vuillard’s interest in domestic scenes reflects a change in the art world, and the rise of a new class of art collectors, keen to see the concerns of their own lives reflected in the works that they bought. To get a fuller picture of Vuillard's career, we can refer to sources like exhibition catalogs, reviews, and artist biographies. Looking into the social context in which he was painting, we see this shift taking place.