Girl in an Interior
ÉDOUARD VUILLARD
ÉDOUARD VUILLARD, 1910. OIL ON BOARD.
Édouard Vuillard was part of a secret society of artists known as ‘The Nabis’, who saw their role as to move art away from naturalist Impressionism into a synthesis of metaphors and symbols that more accurately represented perception, if not reality. The group had disbanded by the time this work was created, and Vuillard had been painting realistic interiors, mostly of women in their home. Yet beneath the surface of these seemingly straightforward works we can see the influence of his avant garde origins. An obsessive studier of objects, everything he painted held relevance to the sitter, with each object acting as a metaphor for a facet of their personality, and he drew a connection between the interiors of the home and the interior of his sitter. He did not see these works as portraits, but as stolen moments that extended beyond the subject and came to represent society at large.