Still Life with Flowers 1921

Curator: Here we have Édouard Vuillard’s “Still Life with Flowers,” a pastel painting dating to 1921. It currently resides in a private collection. Editor: It’s surprisingly claustrophobic for a still life, isn’t it? All that dense patterning in the background, combined with the subdued color palette, creates this feeling of being enclosed. The application of the pastels seems incredibly textured, and the way Vuillard layers the hues makes me curious about his specific choices of brand, the mineral pigments... what were they? Curator: Absolutely. Vuillard, along with other artists connected to Symbolism and the Nabis, had a keen interest in flattening pictorial space and integrating the decorative with the fine arts. In this painting, the background seems to compete with the floral arrangement for dominance. It also speaks to the pervasive interiority reflected in artistic circles in fin-de-siècle Europe. Editor: The materiality here speaks volumes too, how the roughness of the pastel stick is deliberately deployed in the layering. Was Vuillard interested in economies of production? The flowers themselves seem almost secondary. The way the vase blends into the patterned backdrop highlights the tactile nature of pastel as a material more than the ephemeral beauty of flowers. I think the craftwork and production are definitely the focus. Curator: I agree, but I wouldn't call the flowers secondary. Still life as a genre has its own politics. Representing domestic objects, like flowers, becomes a subtle commentary on the values of the time. Vuillard presents an image of beauty rooted in the everyday, elevating it through Symbolist sensibilities. Editor: It feels more like he’s democratizing the "high art" space by incorporating, and emphasizing a utilitarian medium, in service to a craft-inspired, almost decorative piece, right? He's not making art exclusive but imbuing functional items with aesthetic value. It all seems pretty deliberate given the social conditions in France at the time. Curator: Perhaps. Either way, Vuillard definitely blurs those boundaries. It encourages us to question what we consider worthy of aesthetic appreciation, or academic appreciation for that matter. Editor: Absolutely. Makes me wonder what a pigment analysis would uncover... the history embedded in these pastel sticks. Curator: Indeed. There is much left to uncover.