In the Garden

In the Garden of 1898 is a summer outdoor subject from Vuillard's extended association with the Natanson family at their Villeneuve-sur-Yonne country house. The garden as a space between the enclosed domestic interior and the wider natural world was one of the most congenial outdoor subjects for his intimist method: the garden's cultivated nature — organized by human aesthetic and practical decisions — gave it more in common with a domestic interior than with open landscape, and his treatment of garden subjects often achieved the same quality of enclosed, patterned intimacy as his indoor works. By 1898 he was producing his most ambitious garden and outdoor subjects during the Villeneuve summers, moving between the house's domestic interiors and the garden's semi-domestic outdoor spaces with the same quality of careful observation and formal organization.

Oil or distemper on canvas. Vuillard's handling of foliage in this period uses short, dabbled strokes that create texture without individuating leaves — pattern takes precedence over botanical description. Figures are suggested rather than described, their presence felt through clothing colour within the garden's visual fabric.