Les journaux

Les journaux (The Newspapers) depicts figures or a figure with newspapers in a domestic setting, a companion subject to The Newspaper considered above. The newspaper as domestic object carried social significance in turn-of-the-century France, where the press was both the medium through which the Dreyfus Affair polarised French society and the daily reading ritual of the educated bourgeoisie. Vuillard's circle at the Revue Blanche was actively engaged in the Dreyfus controversy on the Dreyfusard side, and newspapers had a charged presence in that world beyond mere domestic habit.

The large flat grey-white surfaces of spread newspapers provide geometric contrast with the patterned domestic surroundings. Vuillard treats the newsprint as a relatively flat tonal element against the richer surfaces of furnishings and wallpaper. The figures are integrated into the reading environment.