Design for a wall painting for the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées

Argan, the imaginary invalid, sits in an armchair listening to the duet performed by his daughter Angélique (center) and her secret lover, Cléante, who pretends to be an aid to the voice instructor. None of those present realizes that both of them are actually declaring their love for each other—neither Dr. Diafoirus, seated in the background next to Argan, nor his son Thomas, who has already asked Argan for the hand of Angélique in marriage. At the left, the servant girl enters through the door. The large-scale cartoon served Edouard Vuillard as a preparatory work for a wall decoration in the foyer of the small theater (Petite Comédie) in the Parisian Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. In it, he depicts Scene 5 of Act 2 of Molière’s famous last comedy, The Imaginary Invalid (1673). Vuillard created a total of ten wall paintings in this connection. In addition to him, two of his friends from the former circle of the Nabis were involved in the decoration of the theater. Maurice Denis painted the vaulted ceiling in the dome of the main hall and Kerr-Xavier Roussel designed a curtain for the stage. The Nabis had already been working under the influence of Symbolist avant-garde theater in the 1890s, designing costumes and programs as well as decorations and stage sets.