I would want this 1933 Edouard Vuillard painting of Jeanne Lanvin in it. Yes, the same Lanvin that founded the great Parisian fashion house. I just love the colors and details—the pencil cup, the pattern books, her lovely green cardigan. Vuillard once said, “I don’t paint portraits, I paint people at home.” This is just what I love about this piece, that it lacks the formality and stiffness so often found in portraits of the period. What would you put in your museum?
(read a great NPR story about Vuillard here)
I paint people at home- what a lovely idea, especially for such a fine artist.
The first painting that came to mind was Mondrian’s ‘Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow’. It’s not necessarily my favorite piece of art and I don’t particularly like abstract Modernist art but it’s really the first piece of art that I can remember being drawn to from a very young age.
And maybe Robert Henri’s ‘Salome’, because she is way saucy and I want to be like her.