Exploring the materials and medium of Édouard Vuillard's Madame Vuillard arranging her hair while discussing the effects they bring forth
While studying Art History at the University of Birmingham, we are encouraged to work closely with the collection on campus, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts holds a fine range of art from the 13th century devotional images to contemporary 20th century paintings and sculptures. Quite naturally, my interest led me to take a deep dive into one of the paintings in the collection, Madame Vuillard arranging her hair by a French artist, Édouard Vuillard. Among a sea of oil on canvas paintings, Vuillard’s painting drew me due to its unconventional medium, oil on cardboard. This led me to deeply analyze how the materials created the effects Vuillard desired and comment on the artwork’s preservation, at first glance.
Vuillard was part of a French group of artists who called themselves Les Nabis (1888 – 1900). They marked the shift from Impressionism to Early Modernism. Much like the Impressionists, they were used vibrant colours, shorter brushstrokes and captured a ‘moment in time’. However, Les Nabis artists painted a range of different subjects such as interiors of homes, focused images of women working etc. Additionally, their artworks bear the influence of Japonisme (France was the hub for it) which can be seen in the overtly decorative elements of Les Nabis paintings. In Madame Vuillard arranging her hair, Vuillard brings together these essential aspects of the artist group.
With the development of synthetic paints at the turn of the twentieth century, Vuillard had access to a wide variety of vibrant colours for this composition. Some of the colours used in this painting are cobalt/manganese violet for Madame Vuillard’s dress, a variation of chrome green for the walls, brilliant yellow for the box and a combination of cadmium red, cobalt blue for the designs on the carpet. This diverse range of tones of Vuillard’s palette creates a rich effect of vibrance and the entire composition shows a sound level of tonal harmonisation. This harmonization is achieved as Vuillard’s main colours for this painting (green, red, yellow, purple, brown and cream) are scattered throughout the colour wheel (Fig. 1) creating a balanced visual effect, pleasing to the eye. An influx of colours should create a dissonant view, but Vuillard’s manages to tread the fine line between harmony and discord in his painting. The choice to incorporate areas of bold colours amidst muted tones, such as Madame Vuillard’s dress against the brown/green background or the yellow box against the cupboard, allows the painting to have certain sections of vividity making it a genuinely colourfully captivating composition.
If you step closer to the painting, areas with cardboard peeking out from beneath the brushstrokes (especially in parts of the carpet and the wooden table) become noticeable. This suggests that the cardboard may have been intentionally used (Vuillard’s truth to materials) as a compositional element, perhaps to achieve greater tonal depth. The dark brown of the cardboard provides the perfect darker tones for many parts of the painting. The un-primed surface makes it impossible to layer colours indicating that the exact shade of each colour and its placement were carefully thought out (made it easier for me determine the colours!) by the artist. Vuillard used this restrictive quality of the cardboard’s surface to his advantage and developed the composition in an illustrative manner by depicting forms through solid, flat colours and strong contrast (colours against cardboard’s dark shade) rather than subtle tonal variations to depict forms. Combined with the one-point perspective of the painting and unusual angle of the room, this illustrative style makes the composition engaging for the viewers on multiple levels.
It should noted that leaving a surface un-primed is unusual for an oil painting. Older paintings underwent several processes for priming the support (wood panels, canvas etc.) to make it compatible with oil paints however Vuillard takes on a different approach. His choice to use the bare surface of the cardboard could have also been to add a greater variety of textures to the composition. Some examples of varying textures are the carpet and Madame Vuillard’s dress, where the artist allows the support to show, creating depth, as compared to the green wall where texture is achieved through the direction of brushstrokes. The grain of the wooden table in the foreground is expressed through long, smooth strokes whereas the texture of the wall is shown through cross-hatched, shorter strokes. Madame Vuillard’s dress consists of many meandering lines roughly following the anatomy of her body to indicate the flow of the cloth. Contrastingly, the darker lines on her dress give a basic three-dimensional effect to Madame Vuillard’s body.
At the time of creation, Vuillard would have had access to metal ferrule brushes of varying sizes and types. Throughout this painting, I determine that the artist used flat, hard bristle brushes (probably hog-hair bristle brushes). The brushstrokes on the carpet, wall and table are some of the places where flat hog-hair brush type is seen. Judging by the various types of strokes scattered around the painting, the artist may have used up to two or three different sizes of flat brushes to capture the various details. One size would have been used in places such as the carpet’s cream colour, the texture of the wall or the table in the foreground, whereas a finer flat brush would have been used for the red and blue details on the carpet, the lines on Madame Vuillard’s dress or her hair.
The strokes created by different brushes enabled Vuillard to achieve a large range of textures in his painting. The brushstrokes depicting the cream carpet are short and quick and accurately represent the fluffy texture of a carpet. In contrast, the red and blue designs on the carpet are confident and areas of cardboard are seen around the ornamental pattern, perhaps a conscious choice to emphasize the vibrance of the colours. However, it should also be considered that while colouring, Vuillard seemingly painted the red and blue designs first followed by the cream colour to achieve a ‘sunk in’ effect of the pattern on the carpet (in an attempt to accurately depict the texture) and thus the thin border of cardboard around each ornamental motif could be a choice for textural depiction rather than just a complementing colour technique. On the other hand, the metallic sheen of the ring on the drawer and the striking smoothness of the yellow box are depicted using different techniques. Both the elements are brighter in colour and to stand out against the dark cardboard surface, Vuillard loaded more paint on the brush, making more careful strokes rather than quick ones. Moreover, the overall matte finish of the painting indicates the lack of varnish on the surface. Although sometimes difficult to determine, due to the reflection of the glass on the frame, one can see each brushstroke and bristle mark emphasizing the raw nature of the painting, accentuated by the absence of varnish.
Emphasized greatly by her wavy dress design, Madame Vuillard sits at the centre of the composition gathering the attention of the viewers at first glance. Painting the mother twice, in reality, and in reflection, Vuillard exaggerated the importance of his mother’s presence in the painting. Vuillard simplified his mother facial features in the reflection to simple dashes of skin tone. With a few strokes of lighter skin tone against the darker shade of the cardboard, Vuillard managed to skilfully bring out an impression of a smile on his mother’s visage. Another interesting and attention grabbing element about Madame Vuillard’s figure would be her thickly painted hands. Considering the hand closest to the viewer, the thumb is seen on the right indicating that Madame Vuillard has crossed her arms over her chest in an attempt to fix her hair. This presents an amusing element to the imagery and perhaps also justifies the subtle smile on her face as seen in the mirror. A comical scene to lighten the intensity of colours and textures of the painting!
Guided by the direction of brushstrokes, the viewer’s gaze moves in a circle, first from Madame Vuillard to the table in the foreground, the carpet, the wall and back to the main subject. Vuillard achieved this by highlighting the perspective of the composition using brushstrokes (parallel strokes seen on the carpet, table, cupboard etc.) so after the viewer takes in Madame Vuillard’s figure at first glance they move along a directed path around the painting. Moreover, the unique angle of the room in the painting allows the viewers to become part of the setting instead of observing the scene as bystanders. The scene does not seem staged or dramatized, it can be considered as a simple observational artwork. The overall warm colour palette, as discussed earlier, enhances the intimacy of the scene as Vuillard gives an insight into his mother’s personal life and brings the viewers into the comfort of his home.
Vuillard’s intensive decorative style complemented by his skilful play with textures and colours makes this painting an engaging artwork. At the time of creation, the colours of the painting would have added to that dramatic engagement. Over time, oil paints tend to fade due to exposure to changing conditions such as light and air and the painting’s support plays an important role in this loss of colour vibrance. This painting was done on an un-primed cardboard surface and though it had been laid on wood to prevent warping, the artwork still shows signs of deterioration. The colours of the painting would have been brighter around the time of creation than they are in their current state. However, the lack of underpainting to enhance the colours and the naturally darker tone of the cardboard should also be considered in the overall duller presentation of the colour palette. Nonetheless, the artwork holds up well despite being painted on an un-primed surface. There are no instances of paint chipping, surface cracking or the support losing its original structure making it an overall well-preserved artwork. I believe it to be quite an engaging work of art. A kind that stops you while browsing in a gallery, pulls you in and makes you look closer to the details.
I hope my fascination with this painting, bled through the screen and reached you. The picture of the painting surely does it no justice. If you happen to be in Birmingham, do visit the Barber gallery and have a look at the painting for yourself!
Bibliography:
Berry, Francesca and Chivot, Mathius, ‘Madame Vuillard arranging her hair’ in Maman: Vuillard and Madame Vuillard, (Birmingham: Barber Institute of Fine Arts, 2018)
Railing, Patricia, ‘19th Century Colour Palettes’, Painter’s Palettes, ND, < https://painterspalettes.net/19th-century-colour-palettes>, [accessed 24 December 2020]
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