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1900

The Nabis part ways and Vuillard’s manner changes

After their exhibition of 1900 the Nabis go their separate ways; Vuillard abandons the close, dark interiors, paints more outdoors in natural light and gradually returns to naturalism, with lighter, deeper interiors and clearer faces.

1900

Meets Lucy Hessel

He meets Lucy Hessel, the wife of a Swiss art dealer, who becomes his new muse: each year she travels with him to Normandy from July to September, advises him, and stays with him until the end of his life despite many rivals and dramatic scenes.

1908

Solo exhibition at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune

His second large personal exhibition presents many of his new landscapes; one anti-modernist critic praises him for his protest against systematic deformations.

1936

First official recognition: the mural “La Comédie”

Vuillard receives no official recognition from the French state until July 1936, when he is commissioned to paint a mural, La Comédie, with his impressions of the history of the Paris theatre world, for the foyer of the new Théâtre national de Chaillot, built for the 1937 International Exposition; in 1937 he paints it together with Bonnard.

1938

Major retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs presents a major retrospective of his paintings, five months after his election to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in February 1938. Other accounts date his membership of the Institut de France to 1937.

21. Juni 1940

Died