Vue du coteau

Vue du coteau (View of the Hillside) represents Vuillard's landscape work, a mode he pursued less systematically than his domestic interiors but returned to throughout his career during summer stays in the countryside with the Hessel family and other friends. From around 1900 onward, Vuillard spent extended periods at country properties at Amfreville, Villerville, and the Château des Clayes, and the landscape studies from these visits show his synthetist instincts applied to the natural world — simplified planes of colour, high horizons, and the suppression of atmospheric depth.

The hillside is rendered in layered strokes that create a mosaic of greens, yellows, and earth tones rather than atmospheric recession. The horizon sits high in the picture plane, compressing the foreground and emphasising pattern over spatial depth. The paint application is characteristically small-scaled and even across the surface.