Two pale-skinned women are shown from the waist up behind a counter in an interior space in this nearly square painting. Loosely painted patterns on their clothing, bunches of flowers to our right, and the background to our left create a patchwork of claret red, ivory white, forest green, deep burgundy, and golden yellow. The woman standing closer to us takes up the left half of the composition. She faces our right in profile. Her features are painted with blended strokes so are indistinct. Her auburn hair is pulled up, and her high-collared, garnet-red and white striped shirt has long sleeves with puffy shoulders. She looks down at a red vase of flowers she holds at its base with the hand we see. The second woman stands at the first woman’s far shoulder. She turns her face slightly toward us, and also gazes down at the flowers on the counter. Her high-necked shirt is ruby red. Four wine-red vases in front of the women are filled with dark maroon-red or cream-white flowers, perhaps chrysanthemums, forest-green and tan greenery, and one vivid, tomato-red blossom. A gap between two vases could be another vase either patterned with white and celestial blue or reflecting those colors. A dark red and two white blossoms are in the lower left corner of the composition, next to a long, lidded box with light brown sides and a navy-blue top. A loosely painted form in the upper left corner, over the first woman’s shoulder, could be a figurine or another person. Though the details are vague, there is a suggestion of a face turned leftward. She has blond hair and wears a long, loose marigold-yellow garment. The right arm, to our left, could be raised to shoulder height, and she stands before a crimson background, maybe a curtain. The rest of the background is painted with dots and touches of apple red, maroon, orange, sage green, dark brown, and butter yellow. The artist signed the canvas near the lower right corner, “E. Vuillard.”

Woman in a Striped Dress

Edouard Vuillard

Two pale-skinned women are shown from the waist up behind a counter in an interior space in this nearly square painting. Loosely painted patterns on their clothing, bunches of flowers to our right, and the background to our left create a patchwork of claret red, ivory white, forest green, deep burgundy, and golden yellow. The woman standing closer to us takes up the left half of the composition. She faces our right in profile. Her features are painted with blended strokes so are indistinct. Her auburn hair is pulled up, and her high-collared, garnet-red and white striped shirt has long sleeves with puffy shoulders. She looks down at a red vase of flowers she holds at its base with the hand we see. The second woman stands at the first woman’s far shoulder. She turns her face slightly toward us, and also gazes down at the flowers on the counter. Her high-necked shirt is ruby red. Four wine-red vases in front of the women are filled with dark maroon-red or cream-white flowers, perhaps chrysanthemums, forest-green and tan greenery, and one vivid, tomato-red blossom. A gap between two vases could be another vase either patterned with white and celestial blue or reflecting those colors. A dark red and two white blossoms are in the lower left corner of the composition, next to a long, lidded box with light brown sides and a navy-blue top. A loosely painted form in the upper left corner, over the first woman’s shoulder, could be a figurine or another person. Though the details are vague, there is a suggestion of a face turned leftward. She has blond hair and wears a long, loose marigold-yellow garment. The right arm, to our left, could be raised to shoulder height, and she stands before a crimson background, maybe a curtain. The rest of the background is painted with dots and touches of apple red, maroon, orange, sage green, dark brown, and butter yellow. The artist signed the canvas near the lower right corner, “E. Vuillard.”

Colors in this work

Details
Artist
Edouard Vuillard
Date
1895
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 65.7 x 58.7 cm (25 7/8 x 23 1/8 in.) framed: 88.3 x 84 x 8.9 cm (34 3/4 x 33 1/16 x 3 1/2 in.)
Department
CF
Holding institution
National Gallery of Art
Palette

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Image provider
national-gallery-of-art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Art Genome Taxonomy

12 tags

Subject Matter

  • Human Figure Both · 99%

    A foreground woman in profile and a second partially visible woman occupy the central and left portions of the composition; the catalog likewise describes two women shown from the waist up.

  • Interiors Both · 96%

    The catalog identifies an interior scene with the women behind a counter, and the image shows an enclosed setting with vessels, flowers, clothing, and background surfaces rather than an outdoor view.

  • Flora Both · 99%

    Clusters of flowers and foliage fill much of the right and lower portions of the image, consistent with the catalog’s description of flower-filled vases and bunches of flowers.

  • Related to Fashion Both · 90%

    The title and catalog description identify a striped dress or shirt, and the foreground garment’s prominent red-and-ivory stripes make clothing a major visual element.

Visual Qualities

  • Patterns Visual · 97%

    Repeated stripes, floral motifs, foliage marks, and mottled background passages create a strongly patterned surface across the composition.

  • Dense Composition Visual · 98%

    Figures, flowers, vessels, and background marks occupy most of the picture surface, leaving relatively little open space.

  • Dark Colors Visual · 95%

    Deep burgundy, wine red, forest green, brown, and ocher dominate the image, contrasted by ivory, cream, and smaller blue and yellow accents.

  • Flatness Visual · 89%

    The figures and floral display are pressed close to the picture plane, with limited conventional depth and extensive integration of foreground and background marks.

Medium and Techniques

  • Painting Both · 99%

    The National Gallery of Art classifies the work as a painting, and the image visibly presents an applied-pigment work on canvas.

  • Oil Painting Both · 99%

    The catalog records the medium as oil on canvas; the image visibly shows opaque, layered paint and varied brush marks, although the medium cannot be independently verified from the reproduction alone.

  • Large Brushstrokes/Loose Brushwork Visual · 96%

    Loose, varied strokes and irregular dabs define the women, flowers, garments, and surrounding surfaces without consistently sharp contours.

Time Periods

  • Late 19th Century Art Metadata · 100%

    The catalog dates the work to 1895, placing it in the late nineteenth century.

Source & rights

Edouard Vuillard. Woman in a Striped Dress. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

High-resolution sources

Catalog record ↗ Image source ↗ Image license ↗ Image-use terms ↗ Catalog metadata terms ↗

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