Démolition rue de Calais (60.1.3)

One of three pastel works depicting demolition on the rue de Calais in Paris, painted in 1927 and held at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau, this work is an unusual subject for Vuillard—urban demolition and construction rather than domestic interior. The rue de Calais was near his apartment in the 9th arrondissement, and the transformation of Paris through demolition and rebuilding was a reality of his immediate environment. Using pastel rather than his usual oil or distemper, he treats this industrial disruption with the same close observational attention he brought to domestic scenes.

In pastel, Vuillard can achieve the dusty, chalky quality of demolition debris and exposed masonry with particular aptness. The raw, broken surfaces of the demolished building are rendered in earth tones, whites, and grays that evoke both the material reality of construction rubble and the particular light of a Parisian street scene.