Vuillard, The Inexhaustible Glance, Critical Catalogues of Paintings and Pastels, vol. 3, Paris, 2003, no. XI-215, p. 1416 (final painting illustrated)
Lot note:
The present lot is a study for the finished painting, Madame Germaine Rosengart (La Parisienne) , 1924-25 (Nippon Television Network Corporation, Tokyo). By the 1920s and 1930s, Édouard Vuillard became known as one of the best living portraitists, who excelled at capturing social types such as ‘the banker," ‘the great dress designer," and ‘the minister." His powers of observation provided him with the ability to attach to his sitters an object or attribute that brought forth their psychological truth. The artist"s working method for his portraiture was to create numerous notebook sketches, as well as more finished studies, including the charcoal and wash here on offer. Through these studies, Vuillard would slowly draw out the inner truth of his sitters. In this study, Madame Rosengart is seen at total ease in her opulent setting, made apparent in the confident black strokes that outline her fashionable dress and the satin upholstered divan on which she reclines. The artist"s rendering of sophisticated languor makes it evident why his subject has earned the nickname ‘La Parisienne."