Messieurs et Mesdames Josse et Gaston Bernheim-Jeune au 107, avenue Henri Martin

Painted in 1905, Vuillard's group portrait of Josse and Gaston Bernheim-Jeune with their wives in their avenue Henri Martin apartment documents one of the central relationships of his professional life. The Bernheim-Jeune gallery was among the most important in Paris for the promotion of Post-Impressionist painting — it had represented Bonnard and Vuillard since the 1890s and would later take on Matisse, serving as one of the primary commercial channels through which the Fauve and Post-Impressionist movements reached collectors. The Bernheim brothers' apartment, filled with their own collection, provided Vuillard with a subject in which the domestic and the professional were literally merged — their private rooms contained the artworks they traded. His treatment of the four figures within the richly decorated apartment used his characteristic integration of persons and possessions, but with an awareness that this particular domestic setting was itself a statement about taste, wealth, and cultural identity that the painting's subjects would have recognized and appreciated.

Vuillard integrates the figures of the Bernheim brothers and their wives into the richly decorated apartment interior, where the accumulated furniture, wallpapers, and artworks on the walls create a layered visual field. He uses cardboard's absorbency to achieve a mat, fresco-like surface that equalizes figure and setting.