Édouard Vuillard’s Le Cantique des cantiques, 1891, represents the zenith of Synthetism: the short-lived movement emphasizing flat patterns and broad swaths of pure color championed by Paul Ranson, who was the first owner of the present work. A veritable and relatively unknown Nabis masterpiece, this enigmatic picture is a possible mate to another work in the Triton Collection, Maurice Denis’ La Vendange mystique, 1890. Both paintings were owned by Paul Ranson—they were in his studio at the same time—and they are of near-identical size. Antoine Salomon and Guy Cogeval, the authors of Vuillard’s catalogue raisonné, suggest that the pair “were either meant to form a diptych inspired by the same literary motif, or were painted for a decorative ensemble to which other Nabi artists may have contributed. Perhaps we should consider the possibility that these two works, steeped in Symbolism, hung on the walls of Paul Ranson’s studio, the ‘temple’ of Nabi art? Denis naturally explored the mystical and the redemptive aspects of The Song of Songs, whilst Vuillard, drawing inspiration from the sensuality of the Biblical verses, sought to create a veritable choreography of rapture.”ⁱ

 

Indeed, Le Cantique des cantiques presents a celebratory scene of sinuous curves and dappled color. Vuillard’s foreground figures twist together, flitting and flirting through the flowering shrubbery, which transforms into pure pattern in the background. With a focus on two dimensionality, the Synthesists were highly influenced by the Japanese ukiyo-e prints which permeated Parisian popular culture as early as the 1870s. Meaning “floating world,” ukiyo-e artists studied and often celebrated the ephemerality of life. Vuillard himself had a collection of about 180 of these woodblock prints, even painting them into some of his compositions. Compositionally, ukiyo-e prints do not convey pictorial depth, but rather, rely on the simplicity of form and color to create an emotional connection with the viewer and narrate a complex story. Vuillard draws on both the formal aspects of ukiyo-e in his use of pattern and flatness in Le Cantique des cantiques, and the spirit of the movement through the charm of his quotidian scene, which allows the viewer to weave their own narrative through the composition.

 

Vuillard joined the Nabis in 1890, and by 1891, he was ensconced in the mystical society of artists. While interested in mysticism and the occult, the Nabis ultimately sought to break down the barriers between art and life, creating both individual artworks and full-blown sensory experiences. One such experience was a collaborative night of theater on December 11, 1891, which featured excerpts from the Canticle of Canticles. Nabis artists, including Vuillard, Denis, Ranson, and Paul Sérusier, contributed drawings and set designs to the evening, while poets and playwrights performed their work. While Le Cantique des cantiques was not a set design itself, the painting is presumably an extension of Vuillard’s set design process, perhaps akin to a maquette.

 

The text of the Canticle of Canticles, also called the Song of Songs, or Song of Solomon, is a celebration of natural female beauty, which Vuillard captures in the women communing in the garden in the present work. The ancient poem is traditionally read during Passover, and while Vuillard himself was not Jewish, some of the most important people in is life were, including his dealer Jos Hessell, and his patrons Henri Bernstein and Thadée Natanson; the word “Nabis” itself, too, is a Hebrew term. Through Le Cantique des cantiques, we see how Vuillard’s curiosity and embrace of different cultures, including Japanese motifs and Jewish texts, pushed his output in one of the earliest examples of a truly contemporary art practice.

 

 

ⁱ Antoine Salomon and Guy Cogeval, Vuillard: The Inexhaustible Glance, Critical Catalogue of Paintings and Pastels, exh. cat., vol. 1, Skira, Wildenstein Institute, 2003, p. 186.