Fleurs sur une table

Fleurs sur une table (Flowers on a Table) of 1931 is a late still life showing Vuillard's continued engagement with the domestic flower arrangement — the vase of cut flowers on a table as a subject of enduring interest through the full range of his career from the earliest Nabi period through his late work in the 1930s. By 1931 his handling had evolved considerably from the extreme flatness of his early canvases, but his attention to the specific chromatic character of the flowers and their relationship to the table surface and surrounding environment remained constant. The domestic flower arrangement was one of the objects most consistently available to his attentive observation: present in the apartments of his mother, his patrons, and his own homes through all the decades of his career, offering a subject of seasonal freshness within the permanent domestic setting he inhabited.

The flower mass is rendered in Vuillard's mosaic brushwork, individual blooms built from small strokes of varied colour that create the overall organic mass. The table surface and background provide contrasting horizontal and vertical planes. The palette focuses on the flowers' specific colour range set against complementary surroundings.