• Discuss the people portrayed:  how are they dressed?  how are they posed? what are they doing? From clues in the painting, try to determine what the people might be thinking, feeling, and saying.
• Using cooperative groups, write a play set in the painting, using dialogue.
• Have each group perform its play using costumes and props.The painting will provide a stage setting for the play.

A student who is accomplished in language arts needs to feel liberated to express himself or herself freely. Much of literature analysis is a “gray area” open to various interpretations; what matters is that students have the ability to overcome the fear of that ambiguity and the fear of failure so that they can critically evaluate works of literature in depth.

• Describe the different people in this painting: who are they, what are they wearing, what are they doing?

• There are three clear vertical areas in the composition of the work. Describe each and describe the color palette used by the artist in each area.

• What different elements does the artist use to suggest daylight? Look at the use of shadows, the use of white paint, and the brushstrokes.

• How would you describe the brushwork in this painting? Is the same brushwork used throughout the composition?

• The painting is an uncommon size. What does its size remind you off?

• The Promenade is one of nine decorative panels that were on view in a room in a Paris apartment which overlooked a park, the Bois du Boulogne. There is little use of perspective in this painting. Can you explain this considering its function?

• In creating this painting, the artist considered the decorative function of the panel.  He flattened the space of the garden, careful not to paint it in deep perspective, which would have created a “window” in the wall. Do you think the artist succeeded in keeping the work flat? What elements of perspective do you see?

• The matte surface of this was achieved by using distemper, a paint made by mixing powdered pigments with glue. What other types of paint do you know?

• This painting was a commission, which means it was painted on the specific request of an individual who paid for it. What can you deduct about the individual’s personality looking at this scene? Explain.

• The commission was by Alexandre Natanson, co-publisher of La Revue Blanche, a Parisian intellectual and journalist. The pretty landscape and women dressed in elegant clothes suited the French turn-of-the-century lifestyle of wealthy intellectuals. What might be some other reasons why this painting was elegant and easy to look at? Think of the function of the work.

• Besides paintings the artist designed theater sets, as well as covers and illustrations for avant-garde literary magazines. Can you see similarities between this painting and a theater set?  How does the use of fine line, detail and narrative support the fact that the artist also worked in illustration?

• If you had to tell a story or narrative behind this scene, what would it be?

• The artist was part of a movement called The Nabis, which emphasized two-dimensional design and pure colors, and was inspired by Japanese prints. This decorative panel was not intended to overwhelm the viewer, but rather to provide a pleasant, harmonious background to daily life. Do you agree the work is ‘decorative’? Would your answer be different if the work didn’t contain people?

• The artwork consists of just one panel, which has its own title ‘The Promenade’ and is shown in a museum setting. Does that change your answer about its decorative function? In what way? Discuss how the way that artworks are shown (curated) can influence our interpretation of them.

Pronounce the artist’s name:  Vwee-yard’

 

The Promenade is one of nine decorative panels commissioned in 1893 by Alexandre Natanson, copublisher of La Revue Blanche, a Parisian intellectual journal.  The panels adorned a room in Natanson’s Paris apartment which overlooked a park called the Bois du Boulogne.

 

Inspired by the location of the Natanson apartment, Vuillard chose scenes of daily life in Paris’s public parks as the theme for the panels.  In this painting, three girls, one holding an infant, stand at the front of a wide path.  They look toward two women who stand near a picket fence in the background.  Trees and flowering bushes are in the background.

 

In creating this painting, Vuillard considered the decorative function of the panel.  He flattened the space of the garden, careful not to paint it in deep perspective, which would have created a “window” in the wall.  He added touches of color in the foliage, the patterns of the dresses, and the sun-dappled path to animate the painting surface.  The colors are subtle and the matte surface recalls commercial wallpaper, which Vuillard admired and frequently depicted in other works.  Vuillard’s decorative panels were not intended to overwhelm the viewer, but rather to provide a pleasant, harmonious background to daily life.

                                                    

To achieve the flat, matte quality of this panel, Vuillard used distemper, a paint made by mixing powdered pigments with glue.  This difficult medium was used to paint the broad, flat designs of theater sets, and Vuillard himself had extensive experience painting sets for contemporary theater productions.

 

Vuillard was born in 1868.  When he was fifteen his father died, and the family lived solely on the income of Vuillard’s mother, a corset-maker.  In his formative years, Vuillard was impressed by the works of the old masters in the Louvre Museum.  In 1888, Vuillard attended the Académie Julian, where he became part of the Nabis.  The Nabis emphasized two-dimensional design and pure colors, and were inspired by Japanese prints and the art of Paul Gauguin.

 

At the end of the 1890s, Vuillard was well known in Parisian art circles.  His small, intimate paintings of interiors had been admired at exhibitions, resulting in a number of decorative commissions such as this one for Natanson.  In addition, Vuillard designed theater sets, as well as covers and illustrations for avant-garde literary magazines.