The Table

'The Table,' painted by Vuillard in 1902, depicts a dining or working table as the organising object of a domestic interior—a subject he returned to repeatedly across his career. Tables appeared in Vuillard's paintings as both functional objects and compositional devices: their flat horizontal surfaces caught and reflected light, supported objects that created still-life interest, and provided the anchor around which figures and domestic space arranged themselves. The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow holds this characteristic domestic composition.

Vuillard renders the table surface as a horizontal plane of light that organises the pictorial space around it. Objects on the table—their shapes, colours, and the shadows they cast—provide still-life interest within the larger domestic composition. His flat, abbreviated brushwork treats the table's surface with the same pictorial seriousness as the surrounding room.