At the age of twenty, Édouard Vuillard joined Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis and Paul Sérusier in the Nabi movement, whose principles he applied with revolutionary radicalism. Very quickly, he spread his art in a wide variety of directions: the brutal synthesizing of the early days was followed by intimist huis clos, large panels, landscapes, sets, posters and programmes for the avant-garde and Boulevard theatre. The violence of the flat tints and dots of colour of the 1890s is echoed in reverse by the commissioned portraits of the 1930s, of a more classical style.
Guy Cogeval brilliantly guides us through this work, which is as exuberant in its variety as its creator was discreet, attentive throughout his life to recording the trembling of time, the light of a square in winter, and to making memories.
