Interior with Pink Wallpaper I, from the series “Landscapes and Interiors”

Edouard Vuillard depicts an intimate interior view of a middle-class French household. Interior with Pink Wallpaper I pulls back to give a fuller view of the room, yet the dizzying pattern of the pink floral wallpaper equally disrupts the space and overwhelms the picture. The image represents uncanny spaces so private that they are nearly inaccessible to the viewer.

These prints are from the series Landscapes and Interiors, which represents the height of Vuillard’s printmaking. The suite was commissioned by the enterprising dealer and print publisher, Ambroise Vollard, to capitalize on the popularity of the color print in the 1890s. Unfortunately, these intensely private images did not sell well and Vuillard abandoned lithography shortly after the series’ completion.