
At the Theatre
<p>This spare but finished drawing evocatively depicts a maid with a bib apron (suggested by the bleeding of the ink) pulling back a curtain. It has been identified as a study for Vuillard' s 1892 submission to the <em>Livre d' Art,</em> the illustrated periodical published by Paul Fort, founder of Theatre d' Art, the first forum for symbolist theater. Vuillard creates his image with a brilliant economy of means. A single line evokes the parted curtain-both a literal element of stagecraft and an emblem for theater itself. In addition, the line of the curtain cuts the page and calls attention to the flat surface of the drawing.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1892
- Dimensions
- 24.8 × 32.6 cm (9 13/16 × 12 7/8 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Édouard Jean Vuillard
Artist

Printmaking
Édouard Jean Vuillard was a French printmaker and painter whose intimate domestic interiors and portraits defined the Nabis movement at the turn of the twentieth century. Working primarily in lithography, he created densely patterned compositions where flattened perspective and decorative surface dissolve the boundary between figure and ornament. His prints and paintings capture the quiet psychology of bourgeois life, rendering parlors, bedrooms, and gardens as spaces of psychological rather than spatial depth. The muted palette of ochres, greens, and grays, applied in delicate layers, gives his work a distinctive luminosity despite its apparent restraint.
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More by Édouard Jean Vuillard
Vuillard's Room at the Château des Clayes
1928 · Distemper on paper, mounted on canvas
Mme Hessel, Chateau de Clayes
1915 · Graphite on cream wove paper
The Dressing Room, Madame Hessel Reading at Amfreville
1906 · Oil and tempera on cardboard
Guelder Roses and the Venus of Milo
1905 · Oil on cardboard
Madame Arthur Fontaine (Marie Escudier Fontaine) in a Pink Shawl
1904 · Gouache and oil on cardboard mounted on cardboard
Woman in Interior
1901 · Gouache with pastel, watercolor, and charcoal on tan wove paper, laid down on canvas, wrapped around a stretcher
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Édouard Jean Vuillard
- Year
- 1892
- Dimensions
- 24.8 × 32.6 cm (9 13/16 × 12 7/8 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1892-128205
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified





