Though living with his mother while in Paris, Vuillard was installed by Misia every summer in one of their country retreats. In spite of the obvious romantic attachment the painter had for her, he remained a lifelong friend of Thadee’s and through him, was introduced to a world of luxury he would enjoy to the end of his life.

One of the most beautiful evocations of his decorative style during Vuillard’s early period, can be found in a series of panels entitled ”The Album,” commissioned by the art dealer Siegfried Bing, who requested decorative works for his new gallery. On loan from the National Gallery of Art, one panel in particular, Woman in A Striped Dress, 1895, is a jewel of the Nabi period.  Here, equal importance is given to the dress, the bouquets of chrysanthemums in their vases and the anonymity of the women, dominated by a sea of deep burgundy. This painting has been placed in the Decorative Murals section. A logical choice, but one can’t help but wish it had been singled out for its own prominence.

A lighter touch can be seen on one wall, entitled Landscapes and Interiors. This is a series of lithographs commissioned by Ambroise Vollard, a prominent art dealer of the time. Rarely exhibited in its entirety, the 12 lithographs, utilize colorful impressions from Japanese printmakers. It brings a special vibrancy to the exhibit, considering that a number of the rooms could use more lighting to highlight the amount of detail inherent in Vuillard’s work.

It has been assumed, rightly or not, that many of Vuillard’s great early works remain his day in the sun. Other artists, such as Édouard Manet and Henri Matisse, among many others, responded with a new, more startling vision reflecting not only the present, but the future of the new century. Vuillard’s vision did not. After 1900 his paint is applied less thickly, details are less blurred, color serves the décor, and a naturalistic perspective appears which will have a great appeal to the rich patrons who seek him out: especially Lucy Hessel.

This leaves us with the third muse.

The Bernheim-Jeune Gallery was one of the most prestigious venues for modern art in Paris.   Managed by Jos Hessel and his cousins, the first group exhibition of the Nabis was arranged.  The Natansons had divorced and Misia remarried. Now the die was set. Over the next 40 years, it was Hessel who would remain Vuillard’s principal dealer and close friend. His wife Lucy would replace Misia as Vuillard’s devoted supporter. More importantly, she became not only his lover, but the third muse.

It is to the museum’s credit that a prodigious search over a two-year period, among public and private collections, has produced homage to this woman who was such a primal force in Vuillard’s life. Some highlights include Madame Hessel at the Seashore, from the Armand Hammer Collection; it’s a seductive portrait of a sleepy-eyed Lucy, reclining in a loose, rose-colored robe, a window to the placid blue sea beyond. Several paintings show Lucy reading, obviously a favorite occupation while sitting for the painter. In Woman Seated on a Sofa (The Dressing Room, Madame Hessel Reading at Amfreville), her back is reflected in the mirror behind her. A feeling of utter relaxation prevails. In another, we see a more matronly Lucy reading in her boudoir. It was this painting that became, according to Brown, another precedent for the current show.

The portrait was obtained by the museum in December 2010 at auction from Christies in London. It is also the painting that serves as the frontispiece of the handsome publication produced by Yale University Press that accompanies the exhibit. Painted just before World War I broke out, Brown feels that for some it is a picture that might be difficult to understand, unless one understands the relationship between the painter and Lucy. “One is immediately struck by the fact that here is a picture of a woman in her bedroom,” he said. “And that, by the standards of 1913, is rather shocking, particularly if that woman is not one’s wife.”

There are others — a languorous portrait in a dressing gown from 1905, for instance, that suggests impudence with its pose and supple play of light on the subject’s figure, the female torsos in the style of Pierre-Auguste Renoir with the attitude of a Toulouse-Lautrec.

But even Lucy had to share a larger stage with some prestigious subjects of the times. Formal portraits are well represented, but it is impossible to overlook the fact that Vuillard took as much pleasure from depicting the surroundings as he did with any human element in the frame. In Marcelle Aron (Madame Tristan Bernard), 1914, Lucy’s cousin is seen in the conservatory of her Paris apartment. Again, the mirror plays tricks with the room’s perspective. Every detail is given equal weight; the Pomeranian dog, the Biedermeier sofa, the issue of a contemporary magazine.

After such ornate detail, the Luncheon at Les Clayes from 1935 is a refreshing portrait of a joyous assembly. Luxury gleams from the crystal and mirrors of this yellow dining room. The execution of the painting is free, quick, and untrammeled.

One of the last and most somber works in the collection is Garden in Winter with Peacock.  Vuillard had become understandably depressed with the onset of World War II, on the eve of the Nazi’s march into Paris. It was this painting that was in his studio at the time of his death in 1940. Brown discussed the challenges of obtaining such works for an exhibition and the necessary federal indemnity imposed. He did mention that this latter painting, which he considers one of the most important because of its connection to a historical moment, aroused interest. It was given by Vuillard’s sister and her husband to the French government in 1941 or 1942. After the war, he advised that larger works were often put in storage in large provincial museums. That was the fate of this particular work.

And the fourth muse? Memory: the facility to reach into the past and retrieve it, even if altered for our own purposes. It is not surprising that the museum catalog features an essay by art historian Richard R. Brettell entitled “Vuillard, Proust, and Portraiture.” Born three years apart, Vuillard and Marcel Proust in their respective mediums, created deeply ambiguous portraits of the higher strata of Parisian society. Each was awash in the imagery of their time.

In Brown’s assessment, he admits he did not, prior to his own research, look much at what Vuillard did after 1900. But he argues that the clock continues to click. We have to bear in mind that time doesn’t stand still. “We are constantly reappraising the past, and what might look important in one decade later, doesn’t look that important at all,” Brown said. He feels no fear for Vuillard’s future because “Vuillard’s greatness is obvious. For anyone conscious of art, Vuillard is a consummate painter, a consummate artist.”

Go see for yourself. Whatever you decide, one thing’s for certain. Vuillard gave us a certain period to look at, to remember, for all time.

“Edouard Vuillard: A Painter and His Muses, 1890-1940,” will be on exhibit at The Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY  10128, from May 4 to September 23, 2012. For more information regarding the exhibit visit http://www.thejewishmuseum.org or call 212-423-3200.

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