Café Wepler c. 1908 - 1910

Édouard Vuillard made this painting of the Cafe Wepler with oil paint. The surface is warm, almost fleshy, like a dream of a restaurant. I'm thinking about the decisions Vuillard must have made while he was making it. He was working within this muted range of pinks, yellows, and purples. It feels like he let the painting emerge gradually, finding his way through a kind of fog. The whole composition is full of these almost-gestures, the brush barely touching the surface, like little breaths. Look how the chairs are built up with dashes of paint, each stroke carefully placed. You see a dialogue between intimacy and distance, that tension makes the painting so alive. It's interesting to consider Vuillard as part of this community of artists, where everyone's building on what came before, while trying to find something new. It makes you wonder what he was looking at. Who was he thinking about? Ultimately, painting is a conversation. It's ambiguous, always open to interpretation. It lets us think and feel in ways that are all our own.