The Clarac Gallery
Artist: Edouard Vuillard (French, 1868-1940)
Date: 1922
Dimensions:
Frame: 46 1/2 × 53 1/2 in. (118.1 × 135.9 cm)
Canvas: 38 5/8 × 45 5/8 in. (98.1 × 115.9 cm)
Medium: oil with distemper
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1999.2
Label Text:In an ornate gallery in the Musée du Louvre in Paris, a man and three women (one only partially visible at the left) look at, read about, and contemplate Greek antiquities. While capturing contemporary Parisian life, La Salle Clarac is also an image about the act of looking at art. Edouard Vuillard encourages us to identify with the spectators in the painting by using a low vantage point for the scene that sets us at their level. Painted not long after the devastating destruction of World War I (1914–18), the picture also reminds us of the function of museums to preserve and present humanity’s artistic and cultural heritage for posterity.
La Salle Clarac is one of four paintings of interior scenes set in some of Vuillard’s favorite galleries at the Louvre, painted on commission for a private home in Switzerland. Vuillard achieved the unusual matte surface by applying distemper—a water-based medium that dries quickly—along with slower-drying oil paint. Additionally, he deliberately left the canvas unvarnished, eliminating its glossy effects.
La Salle Clarac is one of four paintings of interior scenes set in some of Vuillard’s favorite galleries at the Louvre, painted on commission for a private home in Switzerland. Vuillard achieved the unusual matte surface by applying distemper—a water-based medium that dries quickly—along with slower-drying oil paint. Additionally, he deliberately left the canvas unvarnished, eliminating its glossy effects.
Not on view
In Collection(s)