The Clarac Gallery

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.