Jos Hessel & Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris (acquis auprès de l’artiste le 21 janvier 1918, n°stock : 21082)

Galerie Bernheim-Jeune (achat de la part de Jos Hessel le 19 décembre 1932)

Collection Fernand Javal, Paris (acquis auprès de cette dernière le 27 octobre 1934), puis par descendance

Vente Paris, Sotheby’s, 3 juin 2015, lot 57 

Acquis lors de cette vente par l'actuel propriétaire

Collection Louis Grandchamp des Raux

1933, titré Devant la cheminée, n° 21082 (selon une étiquette au dos)

Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Ninth Annual Exhibition, 1920, n°373

Paris, Galerie Paul Rosenberg, Œuvres de Bonnard et Vuillard provenant de collections particulières, décembre 1936, n°23

Paris, Petit Palais, Les maîtres de l'art indépendant 1895-1937, juin-octobre 1937, n° 6 p.58

Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune,Vuillard, exposition au profit de l'Orphelinat des Arts, mai-juin 1953, n° 9 (selon une étiquette au dos)

Albi, Musée Toulouse Lautrec, Édouard Vuillard (1868-1940), peintures, aquarelles, dessins, juillet-septembre 1960, n° 80 p.35

T.Leclère, "Édouard Vuillard", in Art et décoration, octobre 1920, reproduit p.105

A. Salomon, G.Cogeval, Vuillard : Le Regard innombrable. Catalogue critique des peintures et pastels, vol. III, Paris, Wildenstein Institute, 2003, n° X-204, reproduit en couleur p.1271

Édouard Vuillard, catalogue d'exposition, Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle, 2008, fig.2 p.155

Around 1900, Édouard Vuillard became friends with Jos Hessel, one of the leading dealers in Impressionist and Modern art of the time and a senior partner at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune. Hessel’s wife, Lucy, soon became an important part of Vuillard’s creative life – as a supporter, confidante and lover. She was his favourite model, appearing in numerous paintings, drawings and photographs over a period of nearly forty years. As his muse, she was a constant source of inspiration for the artist and helped his painting to evolve (ill. 1).

Every year, Vuillard would join the Hessels on their holidays in Normandy or Brittany. From these summer interludes, the painter returned with landscapes and interior scenes where light and the opening of space took on new importance.

Painted at the end of the war, this work was acquired in 1918 from the artist by Jos Hessel and the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune.

It shows Lucy, dressed in a long cream gown trimmed with black, seated before a large fireplace whose mantle is draped in ochre-toned lace, while the fire crackles in the hearth. Her head resting on her hand, she holds herself in an attitude that is both elegant and relaxed.

The space above the fireplace brings depth to the composition; the ochre walls of the living room are adorned with several paintings. A refined socialite; beautiful, elegant, and cultured, Lucy Hessel often entertained and assiduously frequented the art world, often accompanied by Vuillard (ill. 2 and 3).

She organized visits to his studio and played a central role in the painter’s social life. And he, in fact, made a habit of visiting her every evening, first in the spacious apartment on the Rue de Rivoli, and then, after 1906, in the one on the Rue de Naples, depicted in this painting. In this intimate work, devoid of ostentatious staging, Vuillard manages to create a unique atmosphere that transcends the richness of the setting. The work, poised between Nabi intimacy and subtle decorative abstraction, reflects the complex relationship between the artist and his muse.

Fig. 1 : Édouard Vuillard, Jos and Lucy Hessel dans le petit Salon, Rue de Rivoli

Fig. 2 : Édouard Vuillard, Madame Hessel lisant le journal le soir, circa 1915-1916, peinture à l’essence sur papier marouflé sur toile

Fig. 3 : Édouard Vuillard, Jos Hessel et sa femme, rue de Rivoli, circa 1904, huile sur panneau