Figure Seated by Curtained Window, by Edouard Vuillard, 1868-1940
Oil on canvas
Height 12-1/4 inches, Width 8-1/4 inches
1975.1.222
This Impressionist painter creates a scene of quietude in a small
interior setting. The reader is dwarfed by the detailed pattern of
the curtains, which focus the eye and can serve as a focus for meditation
and even bring the viewer into a kind of trance, through the beautiful,
intricate, detailed, yet somewhat blurry and evasive pattern. Meanwhile,
the quiet, dark figure sits in a focused pose, the face simply a blur
of color. He is intent upon his reading, absorbed in the activity
and oblivious of the viewer.
Ives, Colta Feller. "French Prints in the Era of Impressionism
and Symbolism," The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin,
v. 46, Summer 1988, p. 4-57.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Catalog, New York, New York.
Szabó, George. The Robert Lehman Collection. New York:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975, p. 95.
Thompson, Belinda. "Vuillard, Edouard." The Grove Dictionary
of Art Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed 17 September 2002), <http://www.groveart.com>
