Woman in Green

Woman in Green of 1909 belongs to Vuillard's practice of making the dominant color of a figure's clothing into the organizing chromatic key of the entire composition — the green dress providing the central visual statement around which the rest of the interior's chromatic relationships were organized. His 1909 style shows the evolution from his early Nabi period toward the more atmospheric approach of his mature years, and a figure in a strongly colored dress within a domestic interior gave him material suited to this evolved method: the green could be carried through the surrounding environment in modulated reflections and echoes, creating the chromatic unity of his interiors through color correspondence rather than through the more radical dissolution of his Nabi period.

The green-on-green composition demands exceptional sensitivity to tonal and pattern variation within a single chromatic range — Vuillard must differentiate figure from environment through the subtlest means available. He achieves this through variations in stroke texture, slight shifts in color temperature within the green range, and the pattern of the woman's clothing against the background surface.