The Artist’s Mother Opening a Door 1886

Édouard Vuillard created this intimate painting with oil on cardboard, likely around the turn of the 20th century. The first thing you notice is the ochre palette, laid on in strokes that reveal the materiality of the paint. This isn't about illusionism; it's about the stuff itself. Vuillard was part of the Nabis, who blurred the lines between painting and decoration. It’s tempting to see a link here to the wallpaper designs Vuillard’s mother produced in the family workshop. This enterprise sustained them, but also tethered Vuillard to a domestic world, an existence often deemed “feminine” and therefore second-rate. Yet here, he elevates that sphere, and the labor of his mother within it, through the simple act of depiction. She opens a door, a threshold between spaces, both physical and metaphorical. It’s a gesture of transition, reminding us that art, like life, is a process of constant change.