Mme Vuillard Sewing by the Window, rue Truffaut

• Edouard Vuillard (1868–1940)
• ca. 1899
• Oil on cardboard laid down on panel
• Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
• (1975.1.225)

Edouard Vuillard’s mother, Marie, was a seamstress and often appeared as the central figure in the interior scenes for which the artist is best known. Vuillard considered her his muse. The setting here is the Paris apartment where he lived with her for nine years beginning in 1899. She is shown sewing by the window in the living room. The space is filled with the everyday objects of the petit-bourgeois household, with particular emphasis on the varied fabrics and patterns, a reflection of his mother’s profession.