Updated 18 April 2025
On Display Permanent collection
On Display
Madame Vuillard Sewing
| Date | 1920 |
|---|---|
| Materials and Techniques | oil on cardboard |
| Size（cm） | 33.7 x 35.8 |
| Inscriptions | Signed lower right: E Vuillard |
| Credit Line | Donated by Fujikawa Gallery |
| Standard ref. | Salomon/Cogeval VII-151 |
| Category | Paintings |
| Collection Number | P.1990-0003 |
Vuillard, along with Bonnard and Denis amongst others, formed the Nabis group in the 1880s to 1890s. He created works that were both harmonious and boldly rendered. All of their paintings are fundamentally symbolic in nature, while including elements of the decorative based on Japonisme, the paintings revealed a consistent trend towards a gentle "intimisme" that focused on those things, people and events nearby. While small in scale, this work fully reveals the characteristics of Vuillard's paintings. The model is the artist's mother, who frequently appears in his works. In addition to his oil painting images of his mother sewing or doing housework, he also frequently created such images in print form. This painting presents a moment in a 19th-century Parisian bourgeois home, indeed, like the home where Vuillard himself was born. This portrait of the painter's mother is infused with his intimate affection for her. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no. 105)
Provenance
Atelier; Alfred Daber, Paris; Georges Renand, Paris, 1934; Vente Renand, Drouot-Montaigne, Paris, 20 Nov. 1987, no. 43; Tokuzo Mizushima; Fujikawa Galleries, Tokyo; Donated by Fujikawa Gallery, 1990.
Exhibition History
- 1908
- Vuillard, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, 11 November 1908 - 24 November 1908, cat. no. 58
- 1938
- É. Vuillard, Musée des arts décoratifs, Pavillon de Marsan, Palais du Louvre, 0 May 1938 - 0 July 1938, cat. no. 112
- 1939
- Parijsche Schilders, Bonnard, [...] Vuillard, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 25 February 1939 - 10 April 1939, cat. no. 145
- 1942
- Vuillard, 1868-1940, Galerie Louis Carré, Paris, 10 June 1942 - 30 June 1942, cat. no. 8
- 1946
- Édouard Vuillard, Alexander Müllegg, Kunsthalle, Berne, 22 June 1946 - 28 July 1946, cat. no. 46
- 1953
- Vuillard. Hommage à Madame Vuillard, Hector Brame, Paris, 23 January 1953 - 14 February 1953, cat. no. 4
- 1961
- É. Vuillard (1868-1940): au profit des Amis de Nogent, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, 26 May 1961 - 0 September 1961, cat. no. 30
- 1983
- Salon des artistes français 1983 Bonnard, K.X. Roussel, [...] Vuillard, Grand Palais, Paris, 2 May 1983 - 23 May 1983, cat. no. 64
- 1997
- Expressiveness of Materials, National Museum of Art, Osaka, 17 April 1997 - 22 June 1997, cat. no. 39
- 2017
- [Traveling Exhibitions Presenting National Art Museum Collections, Fiscal 2017] Muse: Women before the Artists' Eyes: From the Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, 22 April 2017 - 2 July 2017, Akita Museum of Modern Art, 15 July-18 September, cat. no. 30
- 2024
- Does the Future Sleep Here?: Revisiting the Museum's Response to Contemporary Art after 65 Years, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 12 March 2024 - 12 May 2024
Bibliography
- 1946
- Roger-Marx, Claud. Vuillard et son temps. Paris, Éd. Arts et métiers graphiques, 1946, p. 66
- 1994
- Annual bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. Nos. 25-26 (April 1990-March 1992), 1994, List of New Acquisitions. p. 55
- 2003
- Salomon, Antoine; Cogeval, Guy. Vuillard: le regard innombrable: catalogue critique des peintures et pastels. vol. 2, Milano, Skila, 2003, p. 621, no. VII-151, col. repr.
- 2006
- Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2006 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 105, col. repr.
- 2009
- Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2009, no. 105, col. repr.
- 2017
- Muse: Women before the Artists' Eyes: from the Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo: Traveling Exhibitions Presenting National Art Museum Collections, Fiscal 2017 (exh. cat.). Nakada, Asuka, ed. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2017, pp. 53, 139, cat. no. 30, col. repr.
- 2024
- Does the Future Sleep Here?: Revisiting the Museum's Response to Contemporary Art after 65 Years (exh. cat.). Shinfuji, Atsushi; Mochizuki, Kaoru, eds. [Tokyo], Culture Convenience Club; Bijutsu Shuppan-sha, 2024, p. 198, 307, col. repr.