Vuillard shared various apartments in Paris with his mother. After Madame Vuillard retired from her corset-making business in 1898, the artist ceased to depict her at work but showed her at leisure, reading the paper, playing with her grandchildren, receiving guests, or, as here, at a meal. Madame Vuillard remained her son's principal muse until her death in 1928.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Luncheon
Artist:Edouard Vuillard (French, Cuiseaux 1868–1940 La Baule)
Date:1901
Medium:Oil on cardboard
Dimensions:8 3/4 in. × 17 in. (22.2 × 43.2 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Mary Cushing Fosburgh, 1978
Object Number:1979.135.28
Inscription: Signed (upper right): E.Vuillard
the artist (1901–3; sold on October 17, 1903, for Fr 200, to Bernheim-Jeune); [Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, 1903; stock no. 13378, sold on October 17, 1903, for Fr 200, to Bernheim]; Alexandre Bernheim, Paris (from 1903); Henry Jean Laroche, Paris; Émile Laffargue, Paris (in 1936; sold before World War II to Rosenberg); [Paul Rosenberg & Co., Paris and New York, until 1943; stock no. 2200 or 5339; sold in 1943 to Astor]; Mary Cushing Astor, later Mrs. James W. Fosburgh, New York (1943–d. 1978; her bequest to MMA)
Paris. Paul Rosenberg. "Exposition d'œuvres de Bonnard et Vuillard provenant de collections particulières," December 2–31, 1936, no. 28 (as "Le déjeuner," lent by M. Emile Laffargue).
New York. Paul Rosenberg & Co. "Exhibition of French Paintings of the 19th Century and French and American Paintings of the 20th Century," August–September 1943, no. 22 (as "Interieur," 1908) [probably this picture].
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Édouard Vuillard," January 27–March 14, 1954, unnumbered cat. (p. 103; as "The Luncheon," 1908, lent by Mr. and Mrs. James W. Fosburgh, New York).
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Édouard Vuillard," April 6–June 6, 1954, unnumbered cat.
New Haven. Yale University Art Gallery. "Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture Collected by Yale Alumni," May 19–June 26, 1960, no. 67 (as "The Luncheon," 1908, lent by Mr. and Mrs. James W. Fosburgh).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Small Interiors," February 17–July 21, 1996, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Painters in Paris: 1895–1950," March 8–December 31, 2000, extended to January 14, 2001, unnumbered cat. (p. 61; as "Luncheon," 1901).
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920," February 4–May 6, 2007, no. 119 (as "Luncheon," 1901).
Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie. "Französische Meisterwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts aus dem Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," June 1–October 7, 2007, unnumbered cat. (p. 241).
National Palace Museum. "From Impressionism to Early Modernism: French Masterpieces from the Robert Lehman Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 14, 2025–October 12, 2025.
National Museum of Korea. "From Impressionism to Early Modernism: French Masterpieces from the Robert Lehman Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 8, 2025–March 8, 2026.
"Mr. and Mrs. James Fosburgh." Harper's Bazaar 90 (December 1956), ill. p. 117 (installation photo of the Fosburgh home, photograph by Cecil Beaton).
Antoine Salomon, and Guy Cogeval, with the collaboration of Mathias Chivot. Vuillard, the Inexhaustible Glance: Critical Catalogue of Paintings and Pastels. Milan, 2003, vol. 2, p. 622, no. VII-155, ill. (color), call it "Woman Having Lunch" and date it 1903; publish André Chastel's identification of the sitter as Mme Vuillard.
Sabine Rewald inThe Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 2007, pp. 161, 261, no. 119, ill. (color and bw), dates it 1901.
Edouard Vuillard (French, Cuiseaux 1868–1940 La Baule)
ca. 1899
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