Edouard Vuillard
1868-1940
Suzanne Desprès
Oil on paperboard
571 × 464 mm. (22 ½ × 18 ¼ in.)
Stamped lower right
PROVENANCE:
Artist's studio
JPL Fine Arts, London, as of 1983
Elaine Sargent Estate, New York (purchase from above)
Her estate until 2017
Private collection, US. LITERATURE:
Antoine Salomon & Guy Gogeval. Vuillard, Catalogue critique des peintures et pastels.Vol. I. Paris: Skira, 2003. p. 205, no. III-59, no. VII-423, p. 752 (illus).
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EXHIBITION HISTORY:
JPL Fine Arts, London. Edouard Vuillard, Portraits and Related Studies in Pencil and Pastel, May 24 – July 29, 1983, p. 30.
FURTHER INFORMATION:
Suzanne Desprès (1875-1951) was a highly acclaimed actress of both the stage and screen. Desprès married the actor, producer, and owner of Thêatre L'Oeuvre, Lugné-Poe in 1898. Lugné-Poe was instrumental to the success of the Nabis artists, hiring them to paint backdrops and design program covers for his theater productions as well as finding clientele to buy their work. Although Vuillard must have known Suzanne Desprès well, he didn't paint her portrait until 1908. By then, she was considered one of the great European stage actors and would soon transition to a career in film. Our painting which was done from life, is a study for a larger painting purchased from the artist by the Musées Nationaux in 1939. 