Autoportrait

In her discussion of early portraits by Vuillard, Elizabeth W. Easton noted: "Every portrait comments in some way on the character of the sitter, but the self-portrait not only discloses the features and posture of the subject--the artist--but also links his image to his craft. A more intimate genre is scarcely imaginable than one in which subject and creator are one" (in The Intimate Interiors of Edouard Vuillard, exh. cat., Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1989, p. 8).

Although in his portraits Vuillard did not focus on the sitter's faces, indirectly building up an impression of character, in his self-portraits nothing is allowed to divert the viewer's gaze from the artist's face, massive and dominating as nowhere else in his work. "Unlike many self-portraits by other artists, who strike attitudes, let vanity, self-deceit, suppressed fantasies and other aspects of temperament interfere with observation, Vuillard paints himself honestly" (S. Preston, Edouard Vuillard, New York, 1971, p. 120).