Garden at Vaucresson

This painting was begun in 1920 at Vaucresson, a residential suburb west of Paris, where Vuillard’s friends Lucy and Josse (Jos) Hessel had recently purchased the house depicted in the background. Jos, a partner in the art firm of Bernheim-Jeune, had become Vuillard's dealer in 1912. His wife was one of Vuillard's great loves; their relationship spanned more than three decades, until the artist's death in 1940. The woman in a housedress standing at right is Lucy's cousin Marcelle Aron. Lucy kneels across from her, at left, camouflaged by one of the large rosebushes that serve as a decorative screen in the foreground. (Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)