The Family Gathering
Currently on view
Edouard Vuillard (1868 - 1940), 1894-1895
oil on canvas, 48.6 cm x 64.9 cm
Credits: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (purchased with support from the VriendenLoterij, the members of The Yellow House Circle and the John & Marine van Vlissingen Art Foundation)
The Family Gathering (La soirée familiale) is so thick with tension it could be cut with a knife. Vuillard portrays a personal story: the unhappy marriage of his sister, Marie Vuillard, to Ker-Xavier Roussel, his best friend. Marie appears to have just stood up from the table; her hunched shoulders and downcast gaze suggest anger as well as defeat. Ker-Xavier sits in the dark foreground.
The scene reads like a stage play: the long shadows cast by the oil lamp on the table at the right emphasise the charged atmosphere in the room. Bathed in light, Vuillard’s mother stands in the doorway, as if waiting in the wings of this family drama.
- Object number
- s0556S2025
- Dimensions
- 48.6 cm x 64.9 cm, 67.7 cm x 84.4 cm, 8 cm
- Provenance
- Probably after the death of the artist on 21 June 1940 bequeathed to his heirs; given on consignment by César Mange de Hauke to Knoedler & Co, New York, 27 December 1951; sold by Knoedler & Co to Doris Warner Vidor, California for USD 15.000, 5 November 1952; Doris Warner Vidor, New York, until at least 1971; Richard L. Feigen, New York; probably acquired from Richard L. Feigen by Samuel Josefowitz, January 1984; Samuel Josefowitz, by 1989 and until at least 2001; consigned by a private collector to auction New York, Christie’s (Impressionist and Modern Art (Evening Sale)), lot 10 (La soirée familiale), purchased by a private collector, New York for USD 2.649.500, 7 May 2002; consigned by this private collector to auction New York, Christie’s (Impressionist/Modern Evening Sale), lot 67 (La Soirée Familiale), unsold, 3 November 2010; Eykyn Maclean, New York; sold by MK Fine Art, New York to a private collector, America, 2012; consigned by this private collector to auction Londen, Sotheby’s (Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction), lot 21 (La soirée familiale), purchased by the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam for GBP 2.053.000, 4 March 2025.
- artist
- Edouard Vuillard
- Credits
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (purchased with support from the VriendenLoterij, the members of The Yellow House Circle and the John & Marine van Vlissingen Art Foundation)
London, Royal Academy of Arts, Édouard Vuillard, 31 January-18 April 2004, no. 96
Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Édouard Vuillard, 23 September 2003-4 January 2004, no. 96
Washington (city), National Gallery of Art (Washington), Édouard Vuillard, 19 January-20 April 2003, no. 96
Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum of Art, The intimate interiors of Edouard Vuillard, 18 May-30 July 1990, no. 69
Washington (city), The Phillips Collection, The intimate interiors of Edouard Vuillard, 17 February-29 April 1990, no. 69
Houston, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The intimate interiors of Edouard Vuillard, 18 November 1989-29 January 1990, no. 69
New York (city), Wildenstein, Vuillard, 16 October-21 November 1964, no. 10
Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), Carnegie Institute, French Painting 1100-1900, 18 October-2 December 1951, no. 126
Basel, Kunsthalle Basel, Edouard Vuillard, Charles Hug, 1949, no. 181
Stockholm, Galerie d' Art Latin, Vuillard, 1948, no. 6
Salomon, A., Cogeval, Guy, Chivot, Mathias, Vuillard : the inexhaustible glance : critical catalogue of paintings and pastels, Paris, 2003, vol. 1, pp. 341-343
Cogeval, Guy, Jones, Kimberly A., Édouard Vuillard, Montreal, 2003, pp. 154-155
Sidlauskas, Susan, Contesting femininity : Vuillard's family pictures, pp. 109-110
Ellridge, Arthur, Gauguin et les Nabis, Paris, 1993, pp. 102-103
Easton, E. Wynne, The intimate interiors of Edouard Vuillard, London, cop. 1989, pp. 94, 97
Makarius, Michel, Clark, Charles Lynn, Vuillard, Paris, 1989, pp. 24, 46-47
Preston, S., Edouard Vuillard, London, 1985, p. 9
Ciaffa, Patricia, The portraits of Edouard Vuillard, New York, 1985, pp. 138-142
Sterling, Charles, Washburn, Gordon Bailey, French painting : 1100-1900, Pittsburg, 1951, z.p.