ÉDOUARD VUILLARD (1868-1940)

This work on paper depicts Alexandre Honoré Ernest Coquelin, known as Coquelin cadet, a renown French actor and writer who performed at the Comédie-Française in Paris during the second half of the 19th century. He stands to the right as Figaro, the lead in Beaumarchais's 1775 play, Le Barbier de Séville. To the left is Don Bazile, possibly played by Benoît Constant Coquelin, Coquelin cadet's older brother. This work was in the collection of Lugné-Poë, the celebrated theater actor and director who revitalized Parisian theater in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and would have likely seen the Coquelin brothers play in his youth.