Under the Trees (from "The Public Gardens")

Painted in 1894, this is one panel from Vuillard's monumental decorative sequence 'The Public Gardens,' commissioned by the lawyer Alexandre Natanson. The series, painted in distemper on canvas, depicts Parisian parks as theaters of bourgeois domesticity—mothers, children, and nurses scattered beneath trees in scenes of quiet, sunlit regularity. 'Under the Trees' exemplifies the Nabi ideal of decorative painting as equivalent to tapestry or mural: figures and foliage organized in flat, rhythmic patterns rather than conventional illusionistic space. The Cleveland Museum of Art holds this panel as a cornerstone of its Post-Impressionist collection.

Vuillard deploys his distemper technique to achieve flat, chalky tones that resist illusionistic depth. Figures and tree trunks occupy the same pictorial plane, with the vertical rhythms of trees creating a screen-like structure. Color is restricted to a muted palette of greens, whites, and earth tones that enhances the tapestry-like effect.