Usine de fabrication d'armement à Lyon : les tours

Usine de fabrication d'armement à Lyon: les tours of 1916 is the second canvas in Vuillard's wartime industrial series — the turning lathes (tours) of the munitions factory providing a different mechanical subject from the dramatic forge heat of its companion. The lathes' rotating precision represented a different kind of industrial labor than the forging work: more concentrated, more skilled, requiring sustained attention to the cutting of metal that had some formal analogy to the sustained attention of domestic crafts like needlework that he had depicted throughout his career. His two Lyon factory canvases together document the full range of the munitions production process while applying his intimist attention to an environment of industrial necessity rather than domestic comfort. The Paris museums that hold these canvases preserve a dimension of Vuillard's career that was exceptional but revealing — showing how his methods could be adapted to entirely unfamiliar subjects without losing their essential character.

The lathe machines create regular geometric rhythms across the factory floor, and Vuillard uses this mechanical repetition as a structural element analogous to the decorative patterns he found in wallpaper and upholstery. The workers among the machines are treated with the same observational care as the Parisian women he had painted for decades.