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	Edouard Vuillard France, 1868-1940 Femme en bleu, 1891 Oil on canvas 9 x 6 1/2 in. The Aaron M. and Clara Weitzenhoffer Collection, 2000

In 1890, Vuillard's fellow Nabi artist Maurice Denis wrote that "a picture–before being a war-horse, a nude woman, or some sort of anecdote–is essentially a surface covered with colors arranged in a certain order." Femme en bleu, as it hovers between abstraction and figuration, calls attention to these conditions of picture-making.

Vuillard was a poet of the commonplace, transforming interiors into realms of mystery.