Misia Nathanson and Felix Vallotton in Vilnius

Jean Edouard Vuillard is sometimes jokingly called court painter Tade and Missia Nathanson, the founders of the most avant-garde magazine in Paris, La Revue Blanche. Vuillard met and began working with Tade Nathanson in 1891, when he was not yet married. He draws magazine covers and illustrations, meets with the most famous and talented authors. For a 23-year-old artist, this acquaintance was the beginning of a career takeoff, a new world, a secular baptism, and with the advent of Natanson Mysia in the house, also a daily wonderful source of inspiration. Mishia is not just a charming silent model for all the noisy, arguing, talented guests and staff of the La Revue Blanche editorial staff. She sets the level and turns out to be a measure of taste, impeccably calculates geniuses, masterfully plays the piano, gathers around herself musicians, writers, artists - and every second person in Mysia is inescapably in love, sighs and writes her endless portraits. During these years she is the muse and model Pierre Bonnard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Felix Vallotton and, of course, Edouard Vuillard.
All year, the Paris apartment of Natansonov with a spacious living room is both a music room, and the editors of the magazine, and a meeting place for friends. Vuillard is with them now almost every day. And with the onset of heat, the Natsansons leave for a country house in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne — and all summer they have friends visiting, some for a few days, some for several months. The main talent of Mysii and almost physical need is to gather people around him.
The painting “Misia and Vallotton in Villeneuve” was painted in 1899, when Vuillard was spending the fourth summer in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne. Almost all this time Bonnard lives here, and Felix Vallotton arrives on weekends.
Mishia - the main figure and the reason for the picture. She is in a dress of a free cut and a yellow scarf, most likely she has breakfast. And her attention is not addressed to anyone - neither to the artist, nor to Vallotton and Tade Natanson, who is talking behind her back, whose identity can only be determined by a pipe. Vuillard practically excluded him from the picture, and therefore from the outer and inner world of Mysia. Flowers, a dog, chocolate or fruit in a porcelain vase, a painting on the wall and even a rich pattern on curtains and wallpaper - all of this is actively present and involved in her life. The overlapping yellow scarf around the neck and the yellow pattern on the wallpaper make Mysia a part of the house, and the house is an extension of her own. Even Vallotton (as hopelessly in love as Vuillard himself) in this space has a significant emotional place, a little restless and tense. When the painting of Vuillard became one of the main lots of the auction, art critics said that this is the most beautiful picture of Mysia Nathanson and the best picture of Vuillard that has ever appeared at the auction, besides, belonging to the artist’s most significant period of creativity.
On November 13, 2017, the painting "Misia Nathanson and Felix Vallotton in Villeneuve" was sold at Christie's for $ 17.75 million and became the most expensive painting by the artist that day. The previous owner of the painting was the professor of Egyptology, William Kelly Simpson, one of the most prominent scientists in his field and passionate collectors. He collected Egyptian antiquities, American folk art, and among the works kept in his house was a work Henri Matisse and paintings by artists from the Nabis group, Bonnard and Vuillard. After Simpson's death in March 2017, his collection was sold.

Author: Anna Sidelnikova