Oh, hi there! Welcome back to your Friday Afternoon Challenge: Scene Stealers!

[Iterate]

46. I've not seen the book.

In fact, before today I knew little of either of them. As a good teacher you've left a trail of shinny objects. I can't resist.

With little art history background, I was looking more at the social, sociological, and historical content. The path to Vuillard came only from looking at more images of the garden. Here are two that have stayed with me today:

The first is by Albert Edelfelt.
Pariisin Luxembourgin puistossa



This was the Luxembourg Garden, painted in 1887. It's more literal, but it's also socially complex. It's of a time and place, and the people portrayed are connected to it even more so than in the Manet.

And there is the intriguing work by Vuillard. It could be a mother-daughter or any two women, women who do not belong in any garden, and the social interaction is mostly limited to controlling the unoccupied chair. I would not ask to use it.

In the Tuileries Gardens


So I must learn more of Vuillard. Well, he was nothing if not prolific. And, with some exceptions, that same kind of disengagement and anonymity he portrayed in this painting doesn't extend to his scenes of private spaces. That's all I meant by the phrase.

If anything, now late in the day, the painting seems to be a prophetic indictment of the self-absorbed consumer. That, and I'm still getting a giggle out of the sash that's carelessly draped to the ground. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's just an awkward little girl with an overbearing mother, but it seems like the 19th century Parisian equivalent of painting someone with toilet paper stuck to their shoe. That might mean there are touches of humor in his other works.

Here's another. I just can't help myself today.