Garden in Cannes 1901

Editor: Vuillard's "Garden in Cannes," painted in 1901, uses oil paint with such thick impasto. It gives me a feeling of being lost in a sun-drenched, almost overwhelming natural space. How do you interpret this work, especially considering Vuillard’s place within Post-Impressionism? Curator: It’s important to understand how Vuillard, alongside his fellow artists of the Nabis group, reacted to the rapidly changing urban and industrial landscape of late 19th and early 20th-century France. This image seems like such a retreat, doesn't it? They often turned away from depicting those realities to instead explore intimate domestic scenes, landscapes like this one, or decorative works. "Garden in Cannes" hints at a deliberate detachment from the social issues, embracing a world of private sensory experience. Think about how leisure and travel were becoming increasingly accessible to the bourgeoisie at this time. Editor: So, painting this kind of lush, private garden in Cannes… It's like participating in creating that very escapism, a kind of advertising of the good life? Curator: Exactly! Vuillard's style – his choice of flattened perspective, emphasis on surface textures, and preference for a high-keyed palette– these aesthetic choices also align him with broader modernist trends that valued individual expression and subjective perception. In a sense, he is marketing a feeling, an aspirational lifestyle. Considering his patrons, how do you think this scene reflected the dreams of his bourgeois collectors? Editor: That’s fascinating. I hadn’t considered the social implications of what seemed like just a beautiful scene. Now I realize the image really speaks to that particular historical moment and the audience that made it possible. Curator: Indeed! Analyzing art from a historical lens, allows you to question not just the ‘what’ of art but the ‘why’ and ‘for whom’ it was made.