Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940)

Vuillard first met Gaston and Jos Hessel, who were in charge of Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, while visiting Félix Vallotton near Lausanne in 1900. A strong friendship formed quickly between Vuillard and the Hessel brothers, who began to show the artist’s work on a regular basis. Vuillard became especially close to Jos’s wife Lucy, depicted in this work. He was a frequent guest at the Hessels' Paris apartment on the rue de Rivoli, and accompanied Lucy during summer holidays in Brittany or Normandy and to her country homes on the outskirts of Paris. During the final years of his life, Vuillard had full access to the Hessel country home, Château des Clayes near Versailles. The bucolic setting of Clayes, was a frequent source of inspiration for the artist’s later works.
There has been much speculation regarding the nature of Vuillard’s relationship with Lucy Hessel. Their friendship, which spanned nearly forty years, was widely suspected to have been a secret amorous affair. Jacques Salomon describes the subject work: “On the left, seen in profile, is Madame Hessel in a pale-blue dressing gown, sitting on the edge of her bed. Her white hair blends in with the tulle curtains, and scattered over the orange bedspread are a jumble of papers and a red writing-case. The white door and shutters are edged with black. Through the brightly lit mullioned window, trees can be seen in the gardens along with a patch of sky, its blue offset by the yellow of a lemon-wood dressing-table viewed against the light. On the table in the foreground, yellow and ultramarine-blue breakfast cups further reinforce the colorful harmony of this composition otherwise dominated by the pink tonalities of the wall” (A. Salomon and G. Cogeval, op. cit.).