id: 128074 accession number: 1950.90 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1950.90 updated: 2024-03-26 01:58:17.481000 Café Wepler, c. 1908–10, reworked in 1912. Edouard Vuillard (French, 1868–1940). Oil on fabric; framed: 91.8 x 132.7 x 13 cm (36 1/8 x 52 1/4 x 5 1/8 in.); unframed: 62.2 x 103.2 cm (24 1/2 x 40 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the Hanna Fund 1950.90 title: Café Wepler title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1908–10, reworked in 1912 creation date earliest: 1908 creation date latest: 1912 current location: creditline: Gift of the Hanna Fund copyright: --- culture: France, late 19th-early 20th Century technique: oil on fabric department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Edouard Vuillard (French, 1868–1940) - artist After attending the Lycée Condorcet, Édouard Vuillard entered the studio of history painter Diogène Maillart (1840-1926). In 1886 he enrolled at the Académie Julian, where he was taught by Tony Robert-Fleury (1837-1911) and Bouguereau (q.v.). The following year he was accepted into the École des Beaux-Arts and was briefly in the atelier of Gérôme (q.v.). At this time he also studied seventeenth-century Dutch painting and the works of Chardin (1699-1779). By 1889 Vuillard was persuaded by his friend painter and theorist Maurice Denis (1870-1943) to join the newly formed group of artists known as the Nabis. The Nabis based many of their ideas on synthetism, first developed by Gauguin (q.v.) and Émile Bernard (1868-1941), in which the artist was to work not from nature but from memory. Vuillard's initial synthetist works reveal a preoccupation with pattern and bright colors, denying the three-dimensionality of the object. By 1892, however, his colors were more subdued, reflecting his desire to mimic the unusual lighting effects that he had seen in symbolist theater. Vuillard's first major commissions date from this time, including nine panels for the dining room of Alexandre Natanson and four decorative panels for the library of Dr. Henri Vaquez. In 1898 Vuillard visited Venice and Florence, and the following year he and Bonnard (q.v.), a fellow member of the Nabis, made an excursion to London. Later they went to Milan and Venice and eventually to Spain. Vuillard also made trips to Brittany and Normandy. His first public commission came in 1912, when he was asked to paint panels for the foyer of the Comédie des Champs-Elysées in Paris. During that period he moved beyond the synthetism of the Nabis and returned to a more traditional perspective. At the same time he was accepting commissions for portraits. In 1936 he was chosen to paint a mural at the Palais des Nations in Geneva and was subsequently elected to the Institut de France. --- measurements: Framed: 91.8 x 132.7 x 13 cm (36 1/8 x 52 1/4 x 5 1/8 in.); Unframed: 62.2 x 103.2 cm (24 1/2 x 40 5/8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signed bottom right in red (stamp?): E. Vuillard translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Work of Edouard Vuillard opening date: 1954-01-27T05:00:00 Work of Edouard Vuillard. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 27-March 14, 1954). title: In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. opening date: 1958-03-04T05:00:00 In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-April 7, 1958). title: Vuillard opening date: 1964-10-14T04:00:00 Vuillard. Wildenstein & Co., New York, NY (organizer) (October 14-November 15, 1964). title: Retrospective Exhibition: Work of Edouard Vuillard opening date: 1971-09-10T04:00:00 Retrospective Exhibition: Work of Edouard Vuillard. Art Gallery of Ontario, Ontario M5T 1G4, Canada (organizer) (September 10-October 24, 1971). title: Celebration opening date: 1974-10-25T04:00:00 Celebration. Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA (organizer) (October 25, 1974-January 5, 1975). title: Masterworks from The Phillips Collection opening date: 2005-02-20T00:00:00 Masterworks from The Phillips Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20-May 29, 2005). title: Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2006-05-27T00:00:00 Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Beijing World Art Museum, China (May 26-August 27, 2006); Mori Art Center (September 16-November 26, 2006); Seoul Art Center, South Korea (December 22, 2006-March 28, 2007); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, South Korea (April 7-May 20, 2007); Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (June 9-September 16, 2007); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 15-June 1, 2008); Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT (June 22-September 21, 2008); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 12, 2008-January 18, 2009). title: Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection opening date: 2022-09-11T04:00:00 Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'Édouard Vuillard. Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, France (1912), no. 23 (according to Salomon).', 'opening_date': '1912-01-01T05:00:00Z'} * {'description': "Vuillard. Stockholm, Galerie d'Art Latin, Stockholm, Sweden (Autumn 1948), no. 12, Le Restaurant Wepler, 1922.", 'opening_date': '1948-09-01T04:00:00Z'} * {'description': 'Édouard Vuillard 1860-1940. Kunsthalle, Basel, Switzerland (1949), no. 204, Restaurant Wepler, privatbesitz, Paris.', 'opening_date': '1949-01-01T05:00:00Z'} --- PROVENANCE Artist’s studio, by inheritance to Jacques Roussel date: c. 1908-1940 footnotes: citations: Jacques Roussel [b. 1901], Paris date: Probably 1940-1949/1950 footnotes: *
Roussel, Vuillard’s nephew, inherited a number of the works that were in the artist’s studio at the time of his death. Roussel was the lender of Café Wepler (“Restaurant Wepler”) to an exhibition at the Basel Kunsthalle in 1949.  While he is not identified in the catalogue by name, the Basel Kunsthalle confirmed that he was the lender, and indeed, he is named as the lender of several other Vuillards in the exhibition.  Roussel may have sold the painting directly to César de Hauke: de Hauke sold the painting to CMA just one year after this exhibition, and he and Roussel had a personal connection, as de Hauke sold a number of works by Roussel’s father, Ker-Xavier Roussel.  However, without confirmation of a sale between Roussel and de Hauke, any transaction that may have occurred is speculative at this point.
citations: (César de Hauke, New York, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: Until 1950 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1950- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Salomon, Antoine, Guy Cogeval, and Mathias Chivot. Vuillard, the Inexhaustible Glance: Critical Catalogue of Paintings and Pastels. Milan: Skira, 2003. page number: url: Sören Schmeling, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Nov. 25, 2015, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: Vuillard, Édouard, and Charles Hug. Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940), Charles Hug: 26. März-1. Mai 1949, Kunsthalle Basel. Basel. Kunsthalle. Catalogues. 1949-1950. [Basel]: [Die Kunsthalle], 1949. page number: url: Salomon, Antoine, Guy Cogeval, and Mathias Chivot. Vuillard, the Inexhaustible Glance: Critical Catalogue of Paintings and Pastels. Milan: Skira, 2003. page number: url: Offin, Charles Z. Pictures on Exhibit. New York, NY, Pictures Pub. Co. (January, 1951):46-47. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 46-47 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 182 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n206 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 182 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n206 D'Argencourt, Louise and Roger Diederen. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Catalogue of Paintings, Part Four; European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. page number: Reproduced: p. 221 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 225 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n245 Salomon, Antoine, Guy Cogeval, and Mathias Chivot. Vuillard, the Inexhaustible Glance: Critical Catalogue of Paintings and Pastels. Milan, Italy: Skira, 2003. page number: Reproduced: p. 542, fig. VII; Mentioned: p. 817 url: Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art: Picture Book No. 4 . [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1952. page number: url: https://archive.org/details/CMAPaintings1952 --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1950.90/1950.90_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1950.90/1950.90_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1950.90/1950.90_full.tif