In the 1890s, Vuillard—like Bonnard and Denis—belonged to a group of artists known as the Nabis. Modeling their style on the flat forms and geometric patterns they admired in Gauguin’s work, the Nabis set the stage for abstract art of the early twentieth-century. In this subtle, introspective scene, Vuillard silhouetted his model before a trellised window, whose pattern of light and shadow rhymes with the dotted print of her shirt.
