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Ma mŠre … Normandie signed and dated 'E. Vuillard 1923' (lower right) oil on canvas 781/2 x 34 1/16 in. (199.4 x 86.5 cm.) Painted in 1923 PROVENANCE Gaston Bernheim de Villers. Sam Salz, Inc., New York. Acquired from the above by the late owner. NOTES With the turn of the century one becomes aware of a change in Vuillard's canvases. His pictures begin to reflect his new connections with the fashionable world of Parisian society. These new larger interiors are handled with a looser brushstroke and more obvious palette, far removed the small brooding, melancholic panels of the 1890's. As Andrew Ritchie has noted, "Intimacy, the close observation and transformation of a restricted, hermetic view of things, has given place to a picturesque display of technical virtuosity" (A.C. Ritchie in Edouard Vuillard, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1954, p. 26). In Ma mŠre … Normandie, the artist turned to a familiar subject removed from his social connections to whom he applied his hand without reservation or artistic compromise. Madame Vuillard is depicted in the sancturary of the artist's home and as it is not a commissioned work, must have served to spur his imagination. Clearly the artist was looking back to his earlier works and acting upon his symbolist instincts. In the present work he recorded the minute detail of life without compromising the unity of the composition and the harmony of his color orchestrations. Elizabeth W. Easton describes the important role Vuillard's mother played in his life and art, "The central character in many of these works (of seamstresses)...is Marie Justine Alexandrine Michaud Vuillard, the painter's mother, whom he called his muse. Whether she is shown at work, as here, or at rest... the paintings pay homage to her and to her profession; they are lyrical tributes to the subject of women at work" (E.W. Easton, "Icons of Inwardness; The Sewing Paintings," The Intimate Interiors of Edouard Vuillard, exh. cat., The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1989-1990, p. 26). Mrs. Mathilda Goldman. (fig. 1) Photograph of Madame Vuillard in the artist's studio. SALESROOM NOTICE This painting will be included in the forthcoming Vuillard catalogue raisonn‚ being prepared by Antoine Salomon and Guy Cogeval and published by the Wildenstein Institute. Please note the correct TITLE: Madame Vuillard … la fenˆtre … l'h“tel des Ducs de Normandie … Cabourg.