At Table, 1893. Edouard Vuillard. Oil on cardboard. Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982.
Vuillard is best known for his small, poetic, and dimly lit intimiste interiors of the 1890s. The setting of these works were the modest Parisian apartments that the artist shared with his sisters and his mother, and from which the latter operated her corset-making business. The two women depicted here are in mourning for the family's matriarch, grand-mère Michaud. It has been suggested that the young man is Julien Mangnin, a friend of Vuillard's from their school days, who dropped in to cheer up the ladies.