id: 150507 accession number: 1981.63 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1981.63 updated: 2025-05-28 11:05:15.333000 André Bénac, 1936. Edouard Vuillard (French, 1868–1940). Oil on fabric; unframed: 124 x 96.8 cm (48 13/16 x 38 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Kaminsky, 1981.63 title: André Bénac title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1936 creation date earliest: 1936 creation date latest: 1936 current location: creditline: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Kaminsky copyright: --- culture: France, 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: Unframed: 124 x 96.8 cm (48 13/16 x 38 1/8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signed lower right: E. Vuillard 1936 translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Year in Review for 1981 opening date: 1982-02-17T05:00:00 The Year in Review for 1981. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982). 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. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'Albi, Musée Toulouse-Lautrec. Exposition Édouard Vuillard (1868-1940): Peintures, Aquarelles, Dessins (1960), no. 88, Portrait de Monsieur Bénac, 1936, collection particulière, Paris.', 'opening_date': '1960-01-01T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE André Bénac, until his death in October 1937. His widow, Mme Bénac, until 1945. Their daughter, Mme Caudrelier-Bénac, and her husband. Louis Caudrelier-Bénac, their eldest son. London sale, Sotheby's, 7 April 1976 (70, repr.), Homme assis à son bureau, for £2,200 to William Pall, U.S. Gary Katz, Cleveland. Through Mitchell Shaheen (Brett Mitchell Coll., Inc., Lyndhurst, Ohio), on loan to the cma in 1977 as promised gift. Bought by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Kaminsky, North Royalton, Ohio, 1980. Given to the CMA in 1981. date: footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1981.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 69, no. 2 (February 1982): 39–82. page number: Mentioned: p. 80, no. 52 url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159758 Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 634-636, Vol. II, no. 222 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1981.63/1981.63_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1981.63/1981.63_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1981.63/1981.63_full.tif