Knitting Woman in Pink Dress 1900 - 1905

Édouard Vuillard made this painting of a woman knitting, in a pink dress, using oil on cardboard. Look at the way the paint is applied here. It's not about smooth surfaces, but a kind of broken, dappled effect that feels so modern, so like the way we actually see – a mix of focus and blur. There's a real material presence in this little painting, the way the colors just barely hold together, like a memory about to fade. Notice the dress. It’s not just pink, but a complex mix of pinks, yellows, and whites. The brushstrokes are visible, each one a small decision, a little push and pull of color. The paint is so tactile, you can almost feel the texture of the cardboard underneath, that tension between surface and image. It reminds me a little of Bonnard. Both artists seem to share an interest in everyday domesticity and the quiet beauty of ordinary life. It's this quietness, this embrace of ambiguity, that makes Vuillard’s work so compelling.