Girl in an Interior
- Artist: Edouard Vuillard
- Date: c.1910
- Medium: Oil paint on board
- Dimensions: support: 725 x 645 x 5 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Girl in an Interior” by Edouard Vuillard, painted around 1910. Vuillard was part of the Nabis, a group of young French artists who turned away from naturalism toward a decorative, symbolic style that drew on Paul Gauguin’s bold colours and flattened planes. In this picture he doesn’t aim for a formal portrait; instead, he captures a moment as a friend might see his house. The model, Mme Alfred Savoir—known as Miche—is seated in a simple living‑room, surrounded by the everyday objects that marked middle‑class life: a sofa, a tea set, a window looking out. Her relaxed posture and the subtle play of light give the canvas a quiet intimacy. The painting is oil on board, about 72 by 64 centimetres, and it shows Vuillard’s obsessive attention to texture and pattern—his canvases often feel like tapestries. The work was presented to the Contemporary Art Society in 1929 and now hangs in Tate Britain’s historic collection of early modern art. It’s a great example of how Vuillard made the ordinary feel almost lyrical.
See it in person
Girl in an Interior is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
