In the Red Room 1907

Édouard Vuillard made this painting, "In the Red Room," with oil on cardboard – can you imagine how that surface would feel under the brush? The room pulses with reds and muted oranges, creating a kind of hazy, dreamlike space. I'm thinking that Vuillard was interested in how colours can evoke different states of mind. Just look at how the figures dissolve into this environment, blurring the distinction between the people and their surroundings. It makes you wonder what it might have been like for Vuillard to create this. Did he mix his colours slowly, carefully considering each stroke, or did he work quickly, trying to capture a fleeting impression? There’s a conversation going on between Bonnard and Degas and Manet here, I think. They are all thinking about how to capture everyday life in a new way. It makes you feel that the artistic spirit is alive and always changing.