Place Saint-Augustin

Edouard Vuillard

1912–13

Aqueous paste on brown paper / Distemper on brown paper

Minneapolis Institute of Art

A busy outdoor market scene with people, carts, and buildings. A woman in a feathered hat stands in the foreground, facing away from the viewer. A busy outdoor market scene with people, carts, and buildings. A woman in a feathered hat stands in the foreground, facing away from the viewer. Édouard Vuillard was commissioned to paint this city square in Paris, the Place Saint-Augustin, by a friend who lived nearby. This is one of several large decorative panels he made in distemper, a kind of paint made with water, chalk, pigment, and animal glue. Vuillard mastered the difficult medium, used in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries for theatrical backdrops, because he liked the matte effect of the paint when it dried. Gallery G351 Bequest of Putnam Dana McMillan