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Lot Essay
Early in 1908, Vuillard and his mother moved to 26, rue de Calais, in the modest Batignolles district, and remained there for the next twenty years. They lived at first in an apartment on the fourth floor, and in October 1908 they moved downstairs to the second story. The apartments overlooked the Place Vintimille (now the Place Adolphe-Max) with its oval-shaped park, le Square Berlioz, named in 1905 in commemoration of the composer Hector Berlioz, who had resided nearby at 4, rue de Calais and whose monument, erected in the central island in 1886, can be glimpsed in several of Vuillard's paintings.
From his window Vuillard executed numerous studies and paintings of the park, which also became the subject of some of his most inspired photographs. His most well-known paintings on this subject are the five-panel screen La Place Vintimille, which he painted for his American friend Marguerite Chapin in 1911 (Salomon and Cogeval, no. IX-165; The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), and the large view of the square and surrounding streets being repaved, Le Square Berlioz, 1915-1923 (Salomon and Cogeval, no. X-102; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). The park's railing, visible along the lower edge of the present composition, regularly displayed various posters, newspapers and announcements. The artist makes reference to this particular painting in his journal, discussing the political posters coinciding with the elections held in November of 1919.
It may appear ironic that Vuillard would choose to live in a middle class neighbourhood when his circle of friends were mainly well-to-do members of the leisure, arts-oriented upper class, but Vuillard enjoyed the livelier streets and more varied architecture of the Batignolles neighbourhood, and was fond of observing the people of varied backgrounds who frequented the park.
In the present work, the layout and cropping of the view of the square are extremely modern. The benches and houses on the opposite side of the Place Vintimille are seen through the graphic screen of the trees. The daring technical solution chosen to depict the scene is matched by an equally radical choice of subject matter: nannies and children playing in the square. These are the types of lower middle-class working people that Vuillard grew up among and who once worked for his mother in her small corset-making business. The artist would never completely sever the emotional ties to his humble, hard working family background.
From his window Vuillard executed numerous studies and paintings of the park, which also became the subject of some of his most inspired photographs. His most well-known paintings on this subject are the five-panel screen La Place Vintimille, which he painted for his American friend Marguerite Chapin in 1911 (Salomon and Cogeval, no. IX-165; The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), and the large view of the square and surrounding streets being repaved, Le Square Berlioz, 1915-1923 (Salomon and Cogeval, no. X-102; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). The park's railing, visible along the lower edge of the present composition, regularly displayed various posters, newspapers and announcements. The artist makes reference to this particular painting in his journal, discussing the political posters coinciding with the elections held in November of 1919.
It may appear ironic that Vuillard would choose to live in a middle class neighbourhood when his circle of friends were mainly well-to-do members of the leisure, arts-oriented upper class, but Vuillard enjoyed the livelier streets and more varied architecture of the Batignolles neighbourhood, and was fond of observing the people of varied backgrounds who frequented the park.
In the present work, the layout and cropping of the view of the square are extremely modern. The benches and houses on the opposite side of the Place Vintimille are seen through the graphic screen of the trees. The daring technical solution chosen to depict the scene is matched by an equally radical choice of subject matter: nannies and children playing in the square. These are the types of lower middle-class working people that Vuillard grew up among and who once worked for his mother in her small corset-making business. The artist would never completely sever the emotional ties to his humble, hard working family background.