Interior with Pink Wallpaper II from Landscapes and Interiors

In Interior with Pink Wallpaper I and II, Édouard Vuillard expertly uses color, pattern, and texture to depict a room in the apartment he shared with his mother, a dressmaker and textile designer, treating it like a sumptuous piece of fabric. Together, the two lithographs exemplify Vuillard’s fondness for vivid colors and rich patterns in his images of light-filled interiors. This pair belongs to Vuillard’s most important print project, Landscapes and Interiors (Paysages et Interieurs), a suite of 13 color lithographs devoted to domestic spaces and Parisian street scenes published by the French art dealer Ambroise Vollard (1866–1939). The portfolio and these prints demonstrate Vuillard’s interest in the aesthetics of Japanese woodblock prints from the Edo period (1615–1868). Integrating this influence with his artistic vision, Vuillard masterfully develops richly decorated, ambiguous spaces that, while dissociated from reality, maintain a warm sense of intimacy.