Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940)

The present work is part of a group of interior scenes that Vuillard painted around 1915-1917 in which he used friends as models, placed in settings such as the Louvre museum, an artist's studio, or the library or sitting-room of a private home. The large-scale Lili Lamy en tailleur noir et cravate verte distinguishes itself from his earlier, small-scale intimiste paintings. As Vuillard encountered an increased demand for portraiture, his interiors became less stylized in the Nabi manner, and the figures tended to assume more natural proportions within the rooms they occupied. Many of the paintings followed a similar format of superimposing a large, dark figure against a colorful patterned backdrop created by paintings, books or wallpaper. Vuillard employed a palette that features dark colors balanced against judiciously placed areas of bright color and touches of white.