Portrait of Thadée Natanson

This painting portrays Thadée Natanson, Vuillard’s first and most important patron and the publisher of La Revue Blanche, the most noted avant-garde French periodical in the 1890s. The work typifies the artist’s oeuvre of this period in its concentration on a single meditative figure in the familiar setting of the home interior. Though Vuillard produces a clearly recognizable portrait, he focuses primarily on the mood and personality of the sitter. With eyes downcast, Natanson projects the inner contemplation at the heart of French Symbolism.