Fondation de l’Hermitage
23.06 – 29.10.2023
In the summer of 2023, the Fondation de l’Hermitage is revisiting the work of Nabi master Édouard Vuillard (1868-1940), seen through the lens of Japonism that took Paris by storm at the turn of the 20th century. Centred on the delicate landscape held at l’Hermitage, La Maison de Roussel à La Montagne (1900), the exhibition shows the crucial influence of Japanese art on Vuillard’s work. The artist was a great collector of ukiyo-e prints, in which he found formats of a kind hitherto unknown in the Europe, radical compositions and framing, and unusual motifs, all of which greatly enriched his aesthetic language. Around a hundred paintings and engravings of scenes of everyday life and nature, created by Vuillard between the 1890s and the First World War, are shown here in dialogue with some fifty Japanese masterpieces.
JAPONISM IN VOGUE
It was almost certainly the great exhibition of Japanese art of 1890 at the École des Beaux-Arts that fostered Vuillard’s interest in Japanese aesthetics, which had hitherto remained largely unknown on the academy circuits. While all the Nabi painters appreciated Japanese art – and first among them Pierre Bonnard, who was known as the “Nabi japonard” – it was Vuillard who collected the greatest number of prints, acquiring a total of 180 for low prices at Le Bon Marché and Printemps. These works depicting landscapes, geishas or kabuki actors are by Japanese woodcut masters such as Hiroshige, Hokusai, Kunisada, Kuniyoshi, Eisan and Utamaro. Some of the works can be seen pinned to the wall in photographs of Vuillard’s studio living-room. His collection also contained several illustrated books, including volume 6 of Hokusai’s Manga.
REVITALISING THE CODES OF WESTERN PAINTING
In the years 1890-1914 Vuillard’s paintings, drawings and lithographs were deeply imbued with references to Japanese art. Like the ukiyo-e masters, he celebrated everyday life and nature. Avoiding any facile exoticism, he enriched his art by freely adopting Japanese codes, which offered him entirely new formats, viewpoints and asymmetrical compositions. Often he abandoned Albertian perspective, creating a sense of space through the bold juxtaposition of a close foreground with a distant background. He also turned away from portraying relief and three-dimensional shapes, instead exploring the potential of plain colours, arabesques and textural effects to create forms.
THEMED PRESENTATION
The exhibition is organised around the different genres in which Vuillard worked, seen through the lens of Japanese aesthetics. The artist’s highly personal approach is explored through Scenes of ordinary life, Screens and kakemonos, Prints and graphic arts and The Wonder of Nature. Also on display is a group of paintings by Vuillard’s Nabi friends who were greatly influenced by Japanese art, including Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Paul Élie Ranson and Félix Vallotton.
CATALOGUE
The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated book containing several essays on the artist and his work by Marina Ferretti, Isabelle Cahn, Matthias Chivot and Corinne Currat. The editor is Marina Ferretti and the catalogue is copublished with Snoeck in Ghent.
EXHIBITION CURATORS
Sylvie Wuhrmann Director, Fondation de l’Hermitage Corinne Currat Assistant Curator, Fondation de l’Hermitage LENDERS Many museums have lent works for this exhibition, including Musée d’Orsay et Musée National Picasso-Paris, Musée des Beaux-Arts (Rheims), Musée de l’Annonciade (Saint-Tropez), Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, The National Gallery of Sofia, Statens Museum for Kunst (Copenhagen), Musée d’art et d’histoire de Genève, Musée Jenisch Vevey, Kunst Museum Winthertur, Tate (London), The Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge).
Images
Édouard Vuillard
La Maison de Roussel à La Montagne, vers 1900
Huile sur carton, 29,5 x 33 cm
Fondation de l’Hermitage, Lausanne, legs de Lucie Schmidheiny, 1998
© photo Eric Frigière, Saint-Légier
Édouard Vuillard
Deux femmes sous la lampe, 1892
Huile sur toile marouflée sur bois, 33 x 41,5 cm
Centre Pompidou, Paris. Musée national d’art moderne-Centre de création industrielle
En dépôt au musée de l’Annonciade, Saint-Tropez
Legs de Georges Grammont, 1959
© photo Collection Musée de l’Annonciade, Saint-Tropez
Édouard Vuillard
Au lit, 1891
Huile sur toile, 74 x 92 cm
Musée d’Orsay, Paris, legs verbal d’Édouard Vuillard, exécuté grâce à M. et Mme K. X. Roussel, beau-frère et sœur de l’artiste, 1941
© photo RMN-Grand Palais (musée d’Orsay) / Sylvie Chan-Liat
Édouard Vuillard
Le Crépuscule à Pouliguen, 1908
Peinture à la colle sur papier, marouflé sur toile, 78 x 148 cm
Collection particulière
© photo DR
Édouard Vuillard
Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, vue du Relais vers l’entrée du parc, 1897-1899
Huile sur carton, 40,8 x 29,5 cm
Collection particulière, Suisse
© photo Peter Schälchli, Zurich
Édouard Vuillard
Femme de profil au chapeau vert, vers 1891
Huile sur carton, 21 x 17 cm
Musée d’Orsay, Paris, dation, 1990
© photo RMN-Grand Palais (musée d’Orsay) / Jean-Marc Anglès
Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III)
[Femme se coiffant, un miroir dans la main], vers 1800-1865
Gravure sur bois en couleurs sur papier japon, 36 x 24,4 cm
Musée Jenisch Vevey – Cabinet cantonal des estampes, Collection de la Ville de Vevey
© photo Musée Jenisch Vevey / Julien Gremaud
Édouard Vuillard
Les Gros Nuages, 1909
Pastel sur papier, 24 x 31 cm
Collection particulière, Paris
© photo de Bayser
Édouard Vuillard
L’Avenue, planche 2 de la série Paysages et intérieurs, 1899
Lithographie, 33 x 45 cm
Collection particulière
© photo Peter Schälchli, Zurich
Édouard Vuillard
Le Salon des Natanson, rue Saint-Florentin, 1897-1898
Huile sur papier, contrecollé sur panneau parqueté, 45,5 x 51,5 cm
Collection Emil Bührle, en dépôt au Kunsthaus Zürich
© photo Collection Emil Bührle
Édouard Vuillard
Marine (Saint-Jacut), 1909
Peinture à la colle sur papier marouflé sur toile, 70,8 x 87 cm
Collection particulière
© photo Peter Schälchli, Zürich
Édouard Vuillard
Les Collines bleues, 1900
Huile sur carton, 42,5 x 68 cm
Kunsthaus Zürich, legs du Dr Hans Schuler, 1920
© photo Kunsthaus Zürich
Édouard Vuillard
Grand-mère et enfant au lit bleu, 1899
Huile sur carton, 46,5 x 53 cm
Kunst Museum Winterthur
© photo SIK-ISEA, Zürich / Lutz Hartmann
Édouard Vuillard
Pierrot, 1890-1891
Pinceau, encre et aquarelle sur crayon léger sur papier rigide jauni, découpé en forme d’éventail uchiwa, 20,4 x 17,3 cm
SMK, National Gallery of Denmark
© photo SMK / Jakob Skou-Hansen