NOSTALGIA

Since long Vuillard’s paintings attract me. Even in my academy years his works fascinated me. When in 1980 I went to Florence I brought a book about him with me. Is it possible that his works ‘remind’ me of my early youth and even before my birth? That period attracts me much.

He was not considered a great revolutionary. Bonnard was more en vogue. Édouard Vuillard painted the life of the ‘well to do bourgeoisie’ in exuberant interiors. Often not too steady in shape/form, but more steady than Bonnard.

My grandfather desired to be a painter (click on the word grandfather to go to the text). The family was against it, so he painted in his spare time. The few photos I have of the 'Sunday artist at work' show interiors that remind me of the ones of Vuillard. They are dark, wallpaper with flower motives and floor lamps covered with scarfs.

Vuillard was the painter of electric light per excellence. He painted coziness, no battle scenes.

The time around my birth seems a careless one. Many 'old' problems look simple or do not matter anymore. In hindsight they always look easy to be solved.

The époque of my young grandfather was one without the atom bomb, polluted environment or the possible creation of an Über Mensch. 

FRANCE

Now I live on the other side of the country, but still it fascinates me. From the Eiffel Tower to the Citroen DS and in between Brigitte Bardot, Juliette Gréco, Edith Piaf, the baguette, French cheese, Beaujolais, you name it... A bottle of wine at dinner was never present during my young years. France was a country of a thousand miracles.

In 1987 I befriended a French couple. Ever since I visit ‘La R...’; a chateau situated an hour and a half south of Paris. The chateau is a paradise. The evil outside world starts or begins at the gate. Within stands the solemn country house with its typical thin French in light green painted shutters. In the house you find old furniture, floor lamps and carpets. Vuillard would have felt at home.
 

photos of 'La R...' and paintings of Vuillard

We all long for that unspoiled spot. At ‘La R...’ I can block out the evil world.

All this may be quite sentimental and not very professional as a reason for liking these paintings.

Over to more technical reasons, let's get 'serious'.

LIGHT

I grave the light of his dim interiors. The paintings of the sun bathed rooms are a real joy too… it is the sensation of light more than the sensation of color.

This leads back to the Baroque. Then the light was used to manipulate the viewer's look. The period, in which Vuillard was active, the electric light was a new invention. Nowhere else it is represented in such a beautiful way.

One can compare the use of light between the Renaissance and the Baroque with that of the Impressionism and his Post-Impressionism.

Left Gerard van Honthorst, right Vuillard

DAILY LIFE

There was a return to a more realistic style. Daily life was shown. The compositions could get quite out of balance. The painting ‘L’Absinth’ by Degas was for me the first example. You sail over the tables towards the main subjects. Did this accentuate that the image was of a randomly observed scene of daily life?

left Degas, right Vuillard

In the works of Vuillard the composition often shows the same quasi inequity. One has the idea that he sits in a corner painting. The represented people are no revolutionaries. They are subsided in every day matters.

Who ever portrayed a dentist in this way? And which dentist has paintings on his walls anymore?

DECORATION AND FORM

A big question is the contrast between form and decorative motives. How to find the right balance between the cut out form and the loose way of letting all overflow in each other.

Vuillard sometimes breaks the image into tiny splinters. The motive of the wallpaper seems more important than the shapes of the separated forms that inhabit the painting. In Matisse’ works you find the same attitude, but everything is rougher and broader painted.

Vuillard goes for domesticity. In my blog of 02-04-2016 I talk about the nudes of Matisse. These women were mainly dressed in an exotic way. They were ladies for the pleasure of the caliph.

Left Vuillard, right Matisse
 

PROUST

Marcel Proust is one of my favorite writers. Vuillard portrayed one of his friends: Anna de Noailles, a lady who as he did, wrote in bed.

Proust wrote about the haute-bourgeoisie…

CONCLUSION

Nowadays I mostly drink Spanish wines, I often listen to the songs of Lucio Dalla and Pino Daniele, I dream of living on Venice and sometimes I even think of moving back to the Netherlands (I partly blame Ramses Shaffy for that), but now and then Vuillard comes knocking at my door… Am I becoming? 

'Les bour-geois c'est comm' les co-chons 
Plus ça de-vient vieux, plus ça de-vient bête, 
Les bour-geois c'est comme les co-chons 
Plus ça de-vient vieux plus ça de-vient...'
 
Knock on the door... (click on the image)