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PROPERTY FROM AN AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION

1868-1940
LE POT DE GRÈS

measurements
65.3 by 114.2cm.

alternate measurements
25 3/4 by 45in.

Painted in 1895.

signed E. Vuillard (lower left)

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Thadée Natanson, Paris (acquired in 1896; sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 13th June 1908, lot 52)
Joseph Hessel, Paris (purchased at the above sale)
Private Collection, Europe (sale: Christie's, New York, 18th November 1998, lot 38)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

EXHIBITED

Paris, Galerie Bing, Maison de l'Art Nouveau, 1895-96, no. 210
Berlin, Ausstellungshaus am Kurfürstendamm, XI. Secession, 1906, no. 296
Munich, Secession, 1908
Zurich, Kunsthaus, Französiche Kunst des XIX. und XX. Jahrhunderts, 1917, no. 354
Paris, Hôtel de la Curiosité et des Beaux-Arts, Cent ans de peinture française, 1922, no. 161
Bristol, Royal West of England Academy, French Modern Art. British-French Week, 1930, no. 95, illustrated in the catalogue
New York, Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc., Paintings by Bonnard, Vuillard, Roussel, 1930, no. 30
Zurich, Kunsthaus, Pierre Bonnard. Edouard Vuillard, 1932, no. 123 (as dating from 1892-93)
Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Le Décor de la vie sous la IIIème République de 1870 à 1900, 1933, no. 341 (as dating from 1892)
London, Arthur Tooth & Sons, Ltd., Paintings and Pastels by E. Vuillard, 1934, no. 6
Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, E. Vuillard, 1938, no. 37b
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Parijsche Schilders: Bonnard, Braque, Léger, Matisse, Picasso, Rouault, Utrillo, Vuillard, 1939, no. 137
Buenos Aires, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes & Montevideo, Salón Nacional de Bellas Artes, La Pintura Francesa de David a nuestros días, 1939-40, no. 202b (in Buenos Aires), no. 165b (in Montevideo)
Rio de Janeiro, Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Esposição de pintura francesa, 1940, no. 170
San Francisco, M. H. De Young Memorial Museum, The Painting of France Since the French Revolution, 1940-41, no. 170
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Masterpieces of French Art Lent by the Museums and Collectors of France, 1941, no. 167 (titled Conversation and as dating from 1893)
Los Angeles, County Museum of Art, Aspects of French Painting from Cézanne to Picasso, 1941, no. 60 (as dating from 1893)
New York, Paul Rosenberg & Co., Paintings by Bonnard and Vuillard, 1943, no. 6 (as dating from 1893)
New York, Paul Rosenberg & Co., French Paintings of the XIXth and XXth Centuries, 1945, no. 10
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago & New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Beyond the Easel. Decorative Painting by Bonnard, Vuillard, Denis and Roussel, 1890-1930, 2001, no. 37, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Washington, D. C., National Gallery of Art; Montreal, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais & London, Royal Academy of Arts, Edouard Vuillard, 2003-04, no. 129, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

LITERATURE

Edmond Cousturier, 'Galerie S. Bing. Le mobilier', in La Revue blanche, vol. 10, no. 63, January 1896, p. 93
Thadée Natanson, 'Peinture. A propos de MM. Charles Cottet, Paul Gauguin, Edouard Vuillard et d'Edouard Manet', in La Revue blanche, vol. 11, no. 84, 1st December 1896, p. 518
J. Daurelle, 'Curiosités', in Mercure de France, 1st July 1908, p. 188
Achille Segard, Peintres d'aujourd'hui. Les décorateurs, Paris, 1914, vol. II, p. 320
Tristan Bernard, 'Jos Hessel', in La Renaissance, vol. 13, no. 1, January 1930, illustrated p. 25
André Lhôte, 'De 1900 au Baroquisme', 1929, reprinted in Parlons peinture: essais, Paris, 1936, p. 137
Waldemar George, 'Vuillard et l'âge heureux', in L'Art vivant, May 1938, no. 221, illustrated p. 26
Jacques Salomon, Vuillard, témoignage, Paris, 1945, p. 47
Claude Roger-Marx, Vuillard et son temps, Paris, 1945, illustrated p. 133 (titled Conversation)
André Chastel, Vuillard, Paris, 1946, illustrated pp. 24-25
Claude Roger-Marx, Vuillard, Paris, 1948, no. 5, illustrated p. 30 (titled Conversation)
Roseline Bacou, 'Décors d'appartements au temps des Nabis', in Art de France, 1964, p. 196
James Dugdale, 'Vuillard the Decorator', in Apollo, London, 1965, vol. 81, no. 36, fig. 7, illustrated
Claude Roger-Marx, Vuillard. Intérieurs, Paris & Lausanne, 1968, illustrated pl. 4
Jeanine Warnod, Vuillard, Paris, 1988, illustrated in colour
Michel Makarius, Vuillard, Paris, 1989, illustrated in colour
Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism. The Annenberg Collection (exhibition catalogue), Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 1989, illustrated in colour
Claire Frèches-Thory & Antoine Terrasse, Les Nabis, Paris, 1990, illustrated
Gloria Lynn Groom, 'Landscape as Decoration. Edouard Vuillard's Ile-de-France Paintings for Adam Natanson', in Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, 1990, vol. 16, no. 2, p. 153
Gloria Lynn Groom, Edouard Vuillard, Painter-Decorator. Patrons and Projects, 1892-1912, New Haven & London, 1993, pl. 115, illustrated p. 70
Antoine Salomon & Guy Cogeval, Vuillard. The Inexhaustible Glance. Critical Catalogue of Paintings and Pastels, Paris, 2003, vol. I, no. V-96.5, illustrated in colour p. 433

NOTE

Le Pot de Grès is one of five panels (figs. 1 & 2) Vuillard executed towards the end of 1895 to decorate the Paris apartment of his patrons Thadée and Misia Natanson. Although the five panels, known collectively as L'Album, are different in size and format, they are unified by their intimate subject matter as well as their rich, warm colours. Characteristic of the Nabis style that dominated his art of the 1890s, this work demonstrates a dense pictorial surface, the artist's fascination with patterns and a preference for an earthy palette. Combining the patterns of the wallpaper and the women's dresses with the rich bouquet of flowers, Vuillard creates an arabesque with a visual effect of tapestry. Apart from its decorative appeal, Le Pot de Grès also reflects the artist's other major interests that he pursued during this period, namely the subject-matter of intimate interiors with figures, usually female, going about their daily activities, and the inspiration drawn from Symbolist thought that adds a mysterious and sensual quality to this otherwise everyday domestic scene.

The present painting was included in the recent major retrospective exhibition of Vuillard's work. Kimberly Jones wrote about the set of five panels in the exhibition catalogue: 'In many respects these paintings are typical of Vuillard's oeuvre of this period. In their subject -- the depiction of elegant young women in hermetic, well-appointed, flower-laden interiors engaged in everyday activities such as embroidery, reading and conversation -- these paintings echo the thematic concerns of many of the intimate interior scenes he was painting around this time, while presaging the suite of four decorative panels he would paint for Dr. Vaquez the following year. Similarly, the dense pictorial surface, with its rich patterning, flickering impasto and warm burnished palette of reds, browns and ivory, can also be found in a number of Vuillard's works from the early to mid-1890s. It is in their designated function as decorative panels, however, that these works diverge from the norm and assert their rather unconventional character' (K. Jones, in Edouard Vuillard (exhibition catalogue), op. cit., 2003-04, p. 188).

The circumstances surrounding the commission of these panels are not well known, as there is very little mention of them in Vuillard's journals, and no correspondence remains. They were painted to decorate the Natansons' Paris apartment at Rue Saint-Florentin, which was filled with colourful and highly patterned wallpapers, textiles and oriental rugs. 'More striking, however, is the fact -- evidenced by contemporary photographs -- that the paintings did not remain permanently in situ at the Rue Saint-Florentin apartment, but accompanied the Natansons to their country homes, first at Valvins and later at Villeneuve-sur-Yonne' (ibid., p. 188). It is not only contemporary photographs, but also the artist's own paintings, that indicate the manner in which the panels were displayed. In Misia et Vallotton à Villeneuve of 1899 (fig. 3) Vuillard depicted the Natansons' country residence 'Les Relais' in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, covered in the stylised wallpaper, and showing Le Pot de Grès on the wall. Thadée kept all of the five panels after the couple's separation in 1904, and the group was split in the auction of his possessions in 1908.

Thadée and Misia Natanson were the most important and active supporters of the Nabis artists around the turn of the century. Thadée was a Parisian publisher who, together with his brothers Alfred and Alexandre, founded the avant-garde periodical La Revue blanche in 1891, and Vuillard, Bonnard and Vallotton were among the regular contributors to this journal. Alongside her husband, Misia played an important role in the Parisian artistic circles, as a muse and patron of artists as well as of writers and composers. Her vibrant character inspired a number of painters, and she was portrayed by artists including Bonnard, Vuillard, Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec.

Soon after their completion in November 1895, these five panels were included in the inaugural exhibition of Siegfried Bing's Maison de l'Art Nouveau, held in Paris in December of the same year, where Vuillard's suite was exhibited alongside works by Maurice Denis and Paul Ranson. In his review of the exhibition, published in La Revue blanche in January 1896, Edmond Cousturier wrote: 'Mr. Vuillard is a rare harmonist; he is sensitive to the charm of privacy, the enigma that every solitary being seems to inhabit. He vocalizes in a minor key; his tones are neutral and muted, his combinations subtle' (quoted in ibid., p. 188). It is this harmony in which Vuillard combined the various patterns, and the sense of intimacy he achieved despite the large scale, that place this among the most accomplished of his Nabi interiors.