Autoportrait au miroir de bambou

Autoportrait au miroir de bambou (Self-Portrait with Bamboo Mirror) of 1890 is one of Vuillard's earliest self-portraits, made at the moment when his Nabi transformation was just beginning. The bamboo mirror frame is a significant detail: both Vuillard and his Nabi colleagues were enthusiastic collectors of Japanese art and objects, and the bamboo mirror frame signals the Japanese influence that was fundamental to the Nabi aesthetic program — the flat, decorative organization of surface that the Japanese print tradition had modeled. His self-portrait with this specific accessory places him simultaneously as self-observer and as a member of the Japonisme-influenced Parisian avant-garde, the mirror reflection creating the doubled, self-reflexive subject appropriate to a young painter examining his own identity at a moment of artistic transformation. The bamboo frame's decorative presence within the composition is treated with the same visual attention as the reflected face — an early instance of his democratic treatment of objects and persons.

The mirror frame asserts itself as a strong linear element, imposing a Japanese-influenced geometry over the softer handling of the face. Vuillard flattens the reflective surface so that spatial depth is entirely suppressed, making reflection and frame operate on the same pictorial plane.