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Edouard
Vuillard. Under the Trees, 1894. Distemper on canvas. The Cleveland
Museum of Art, gift of the Hanna Fund (cat. no. 33)
This panel is part
of a series of nine paintings, known collectively as Public Gardens,
commissioned by the director of the literary journal La Revue blanche,
Alexandre Natanson, whose family was a principal source of commissions
in the early years of Edouard Vuillards career. Destined to harmonize
with the décor of Natansons elegant Paris mansion, Under
the Trees and its companion panels (including First Steps, also
in the exhibition) exhibit a formal, muted style. The lighthearted theme
of contemporary women and children in a public park (in this case, the
Jardin des Tuileries) can be traced to decorative interior panels of the
18th-century Rococo period. The focus on children may have also been inspired
by Natansons three young daughters, who would have found such subject
matter appealing.
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