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Woman Sewing before a Garden Window

Edouard Vuillard (French, 1868–1940)
1895

Medium/Technique Oil on paper mounted on canvas mounted on panel
Dimensions 31.1 x 36.5 cm (12 1/4 x 14 3/8 in.)
Credit Line Bequest of John T. Spaulding
Accession Number48.612
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
In the 1890s, Vuillard—like Bonnard and Denis—belonged to a group of artists known as the Nabis. Modeling their style on the flat forms and geometric patterns they admired in Gauguin’s work, the Nabis set the stage for abstract art of the early twentieth-century. In this subtle, introspective scene, Vuillard silhouetted his model before a trellised window, whose pattern of light and shadow rhymes with the dotted print of her shirt.

InscriptionsLower right: EVuillard 95
ProvenanceSold by the artist to Emile Staub-Terlinden, Männedorf, Switzerland; by inheritance to his widow, Alma Staub-Terlinden, Männedorf; 1938, consigned by Alma Staub-Terlinden to Wildenstein, Paris and New York [see note 1]; November 1, 1941, sold by Wildenstein to John Taylor Spaulding (b. 1870 - d. 1948), Boston; 1948, bequest of John Taylor Spaulding to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 3, 1948)

NOTES:
[1] According to a letter from Ay-Whang Hsia of Wildenstein (July 14, 2003) in the MFA curatorial file.