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The formative stages of Edouard Vuillard, 1886-1893

University of British Columbia

Edouard Vuillard officially joined the radical group of young painters known as the Nabis in 1889- However, the mature style he developed by 1893 seems to bear little relationship to the kind of painting they advocated. This paper attempts to clarify Vuillard's artistic debt to the Nabis through a close examination of selected works from his formative stages 1886-1893. Chapter One considers Vuillard's student years, 1886-1890, showing the conventional nature of his artistic training, and revealing, by his visual reference to Chardin, an early inclination towards a quiet art of intimate scenes. During this same time, Vuillard established his association with the Nabis, which prompted some cautious experiments with their Ideas, veiled by naturalistic appearances. Chapter Two concerns Vuillard's experimental stage of 1890-1893-His artistic consideration of Nabi ideas was boldly evident at first, but his attention was soon attracted both by the works of recent avant-garde painters and by Japanese ukiyo-e prints, as well. In his formative stages, Vuillard developed formal means to synthesize the aesthetic approach he derived from the Nabis with his preference for an art of quiet intimacy. By 1893, he had married these in a delicate harmony, and achieved the very distinctive, personal style for which he is known.

Text

2010-02-25

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20955

Fine Arts

University of British Columbia

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