Édouard Vuillard

Vuillard made many large decorative pictures for wealthy clients. In 1894 the Parisian Alexandre Natanson commissioned Vuillard to decorate the dining room of his mansion on the Avenue du Bois. Vuillard made a series of paintings titled Public Gardens, consisting of eight vertical canvases and a square central element. The decorative series presents everyday scenes of children playing in Parisian parks and the nannies looking after them. The ornate panels reflect Vuillard’s admiration for the medieval tapestries of the Cluny Museum (pictured), but the outdoor setting dappled with patches of light also recalls the French Impressionists.

From the page of In Bed