Le déjeuner en famille

Le déjeuner en famille (Family Lunch) at the Musée d'Orsay, painted in 1899, returns to the domestic meal as subject — a theme Vuillard treated throughout his career with consistent formal interest and consistent biographical significance. The family around a table was his primary social world: his mother, brother, and sister constituted the household in which he lived for most of his adult life, and the lunch table where they gathered was both a literal subject and a metaphor for the intimate, enclosed domestic world that was the central territory of his art. The Orsay's acquisition affirms its status as a key statement of his mature domestic vision.

The table surface, laid with dishes and food, creates a central compositional element that draws the eye while the family members around it occupy the middle and upper zones of the picture. Vuillard treats the white tablecloth with careful attention to its reflected colors and the shadows cast by objects upon it.