Self-Portrait with Waroquy

Painted in 1889 when Vuillard was just 21, this early double portrait with his fellow student Waroquy predates the Nabi formation and shows a more conventionally academic approach that he would rapidly abandon. Self-portraiture was an essential exercise in French academic training, and this early work demonstrates Vuillard's facility within conventional modes before his encounter with Sérusier's 'Talisman' and Gauguin's colour theory transformed his practice. The Metropolitan Museum work is historically significant as evidence of Vuillard's formation: the stylistic distance from this 1889 work to the patterned, flattened intimiste works of 1893 illustrates the speed and completeness of the Nabi transformation.

The handling is more conventional than Vuillard's mature work — modelled forms, spatial recession, and academic tonal range. The palette of subdued ochres and greys reflects the influence of his Académie Julian training rather than the flat, bold colour of his Nabi years.