Garden at Vaucresson

Painted in 1923 in distemper — his preferred large-scale medium — and now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this garden at Vaucresson belongs to Vuillard's late decorative work for private patrons. Vaucresson is a suburb west of Paris where the physician Henri Vaquez had a property, and Vuillard spent time there over several years, producing a series of works documenting the garden's seasonal transformations. The distemper technique, which he had used since the 1890s for decorative panels, gave large-scale works a distinctive matt, textile-like surface well suited to interior decoration. The Metropolitan's holding reflects the museum's strong Nabi and Post-Impressionist collection.

The distemper medium produces the characteristic flat, chalky surface that distinguishes Vuillard's decorative panels from his oil paintings — colour areas are resolved into broad, matte passages without the reflective quality of oil. The garden composition explores the interaction of figures, architecture, and vegetation in dappled outdoor light characteristic of his later style.