Artwork
The Artist's Paint Box and Moss Roses
The Artist's Paint Box and Moss Roses is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist Édouard Vuillard. It dates from 1898 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
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- Inscribed:lower left: E Vuillard
About this work
Technique & Style
The composition focuses on the arrangement of flowers, aligning with the artist's broader exploration of interior spaces and decorative patterns.
Executed in 1898, this still life by Édouard Vuillard utilizes oil paint applied to a cardboard support. The work measures 36.1 by 42.9 centimeters and depicts floral subjects, specifically moss roses alongside an artist's paint box. As a painting from the late nineteenth century, the piece demonstrates Vuillard's engagement with intimate domestic genres.
The selection of cardboard as a ground rather than traditional canvas suggests a preference for a specific textural absorption or immediacy in handling, characteristic of his approach to small-scale works during this period. The composition focuses on the arrangement of flowers, aligning with the artist's broader exploration of interior spaces and decorative patterns.
History & Provenance
The Artist's Paint Box and Moss Roses was created by Édouard Vuillard in 1898, executed in oil on cardboard. Vuillard retained the work for several years before selling it in 1903 to the Paris dealer Bernheim-Jeune, which in turn sold it in 1904 to Paul Rosenberg and Co. The painting subsequently entered the collection of Isaac, comte de Camondo (1851–1911), in Paris.
According to a 1998 letter from Wildenstein's, the work later passed to Mme Bertrand Laporte in Paris, who sold it on behalf of a friend to whom Camondo had given it. In 1958 the painting was consigned to Wildenstein & Co. in London, New York, and Paris, and on 30 September 1959 it was sold to Ailsa Mellon Bruce (1901–1969) of New York. Bruce bequeathed the work in 1970 to the National Gallery of Art, where it remains today.
The painting is held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It entered the museum's collection through the bequest of Ailsa Mellon Bruce in 1970, having previously been owned by Isaac de Camondo, Mme. Bertrand Laporte, and Paul Rosenberg & Co., and sold by Wildenstein & Co. in 1958. The work, an oil on cardboard still life dated 1898, is catalogued in the National Gallery of Art's collection and is listed in the institution's records. Exhibition history is not documented in the provided sources.
Overview
Édouard Vuillard, a French painter associated with the avant-garde group Les Nabis, created The Artist's Paint Box and Moss Roses in 1898. This oil on cardboard still life presents a quiet domestic scene, featuring a painter's tools alongside a bouquet of flowers. The work exemplifies the Nabis' departure from strict naturalism, instead prioritizing decorative qualities and a subjective use of color and form. It reflects the post-impressionist era's broader artistic shifts.
Subject & Meaning
The painting brings together two distinct elements: a wooden box filled with paint tubes and a cluster of pink moss roses resting on a surface. This pairing subtly connects the artist's craft with the natural world, suggesting the inspiration derived from everyday observation. Vuillard often depicted intimate indoor settings, and this composition evokes a personal, contemplative atmosphere, blending the functional with the aesthetic in a harmonious arrangement.
Context
As a prominent member of Les Nabis from 1891 to 1900, Édouard Vuillard contributed to a significant shift in late 19th-century art. This group, part of the wider post-impressionist movement, moved away from the optical realism of Impressionism. They instead favored expressive color, flattened perspectives, and decorative patterns in their compositions, often drawing inspiration from everyday life and the domestic sphere, as seen in this particular work.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Jean-Édouard Vuillard (French:; 11 November 1868 – 21 June 1940) was a French painter, decorative artist, and printmaker.
