Coin De Cheminee À Les Clayes c. 1932 - 1935

Édouard Vuillard laid down this interior view in pastel, somewhere in France. Those wispy, chalky strokes, blurring the edges of things, make you wonder what he was seeing, or maybe, what he wanted to see. I mean, is it a room or a dream? The colours are soft—yellows, pinks, blues—like a memory fading at the edges. I can imagine Vuillard in his studio, squinting at the scene, trying to catch the light just so, smudging the pastel with his fingers, pulling the image out of the air. Look at that vase of flowers, how quickly it's drawn, and how delicate. It feels like a breath, a fleeting moment captured in a few strokes. Vuillard was part of a group called the Nabis, who were all about capturing feeling and mood. They must have been in constant conversation with each other, because you see similar approaches in Bonnard's paintings, too. It shows how artists are always riffing off each other, an ongoing exchange of ideas, and reminding us that painting isn't just about what you see, but how you feel.