Édouard Vuillard The Conversation, 1891 reveals a stark interior life on display in one of my favorite galleries at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

🏠 If you visit the National Gallery of Art's East Building - which houses modern and contemporary art - don't miss gallery C103, just hidden beyond the entrance on the plaza. These cozy galleries house some incredible post-modern French and Italian works, including Vuillard, who was a member of the turn-of-the-century Symbolist group known as Les Nabis who were interested in symbolism and metaphors. Vuillard's work focused on interiors, so his work on display in these small galleries feels especially appropriate.

🌊His stark, abstracted, almost pixelated, interior paintings were inspired by his own life in Paris and Japanese woodblock prints (1). The subjects in his interior works are given the same treatment, so tables, figures and wallpapers are all flat, giving a decorative effect.

💐I added flowers to this winter interior, drawing on the tradition of flowers as key elements in domestic art. So many of his works, like this one, leaves room for the viewer to project stories and scenarios into the painting, creating a real sense of intrigue. To echo the artist’s style, I created a very casual arrangement, focused on strong textures with daisies and blue thistles, and incorporated bold vertical and horizontal lines to mimic the flatness of his paintings.

Sources:

(1) Édouard Vuillard. The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved [Date of Access], from https://www.moma.org/artists/6194