Luncheon (Annette and Her Grandmother)

1899

Luncheon (Annette and Her Grandmother), 1899. Edouard Vuillard (French, 1868–1940). Oil on board; unframed: 29.8 x 32.4 x 2.9 cm (11 3/4 x 12 3/4 x 1 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift 2020.118 Vuillard depicted close family members in this intimate domestic scene. The woman at the lower right corner of the composition is his mother, Marie Vuillard. She is tending to a her grandchild, Annette Roussel, the daughter of Vuillard’s sister and her husband, Ker-Xavier Roussel, who was also an artist. The two figures are in the apartment that Vuillard shared with his mother in Paris. Vuillard adopted a particularly steep angle of view in this painting, looking down upon the interaction of the figures. The viewer assumes the position of the artist himself, looking over his mother’s shoulder as she lovingly feeds the baby. Vuillard began visiting his sister's home in the country more frequently and for extended periods of time after the birth of Annette, who was one year old at the time of this painting.