Woman Brushing a Garment 1892

Édouard Vuillard created "Woman Brushing a Garment" with oil on cardboard. The painting immediately presents a dense tapestry of browns, blacks, and muted yellows, where the figure of a woman almost merges with her surroundings. Vuillard’s use of color flattens the pictorial space, reducing depth and emphasizing the surface as a field of interlocking shapes. The brushstrokes, short and choppy, add to this effect, creating a visual texture that invites close inspection. The composition is structured around the interplay of patterns: the woman's patterned dress and the garment, set against the backdrop of a sunlit window. The window itself acts as a structural anchor, its vertical lines contrasting with the more amorphous forms of the fabrics and figure. This contrast destabilizes any clear separation between foreground and background, figure and ground. In doing so, the artwork encourages us to question the nature of representation and perception. By exploring Vuillard’s interest in semiotics, we can recognize his use of visual elements and cultural codes in a way that challenges fixed meanings.