Woman Sitting at a Table

Woman Sitting at a Table from 1910 at the Milwaukee Art Museum shows Vuillard in the decade when his intimism was evolving under changed social circumstances — he had been introduced to wealthy Parisian collectors and was increasingly painting in more spacious, formally furnished environments rather than the cramped apartments of his Nabi years. A woman at a table remains among his most characteristic subjects, but the setting here may be more affluent than the earlier domestic scenes. Milwaukee's French collection provides a Midwestern American context for this work.

The table and its objects receive treatment as visually complex as the seated woman — Vuillard's democratic eye finding equal interest in reflective surfaces, tablecloth patterns, and the figure itself. His paint handling by 1910 is looser and more tonal than the early Nabi period, individual strokes larger and more varied in texture.