The Artist's Mother in Her Apartment, Rue de Calais, Paris - Morning (Primary Title)
Édouard Vuillard, French, 1868 - 1940 (Artist)
When Vuillard was fifteen, his father died and his mother, Alexandrine Michaud, supported the family by working as a seamstress. Vuillard's intimate familiarity with the masses of fabrics that filled their workroom apartment in Paris's Montmartre neighborhood became commonplace references in his paintings. Depictions of his mother and sisters in the family apartment were among his earliest scenes of private life set in the city's homes and gardens, a theme that dominated Vuillard's work throughout his career. He continued to live with his mother until she died in 1928, and he always considered her his greatest muse.
Vuillard textured his paint to render the chromatic and figurative details of this scene in soft focus, demonstrating his attentiveness to the techniques of light exposure in photography. The subtle blending of muted tones to capture the interior’s soft shadows and gleam of cold morning light marries the cycles of nature to the habitual routines of everyday existence. Completed only a few years before her death, this intimate twilight representation of the artist's mother completing chores at the break of day appears as a profound meditation on life's duration—its persistence and its inevitable finale.
2019-2021: Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, and Their Times: The Mellon Collection of French Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN, February 2 - May 5, 2019; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS, April 4, 2020 - January 10, 2021
2018-2019: "Van Gogh, Monet, Degas: The Mellon Collection of French Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts", The Frick Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, March 17 - July 15, 2018; Oklahoma Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, June 22 - September 22, 2019
1973: French Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, 1973.
1966: French paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Exhibition 1941-1966. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, March 17-May 1, 1966
1957: Galerie Huguette Beres, Paris, May 1957, no. 81 (as stated in catalgoue raisonne)
1954: "Vuillard," Cleveland Museum of Art, 26 January - 14 March 1954; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 7 April - 6 June 1954. (as stated in catalogue raisonne)
1947: Galerie Daber, Paris, 1947 (as stated in catalgoue raisonne)
1938: Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, 1938, no. 188, [as "La Menagere"] (as stated in catalgoue raisonne)
Some object records are not complete and do not reflect VMFA's full and current knowledge. VMFA makes routine updates as records are reviewed and enhanced.
