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| Édouard Vuillard Madame Vuillard 1888 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Édouard Vuillard Madame Vuillard in profile ca. 1888 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Édouard Vuillard Madame Vuillard reading, standing by a window 1893 oil on panel Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Édouard Vuillard Madame Arthur Fontaine in a pink shawl 1903 gouache and oil on cardboard Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Édouard Vuillard Madame Hessel au sofa ca. 1900-1901 oil on cardboard Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
In Paris
Today as we walk in Paris I promise to focus
More on the sights before us than on the woman
We noticed yesterday in the photograph at the print shop,
The slender brunette who looked like you
As she posed with a violin case by a horse-drawn omnibus
Near the Luxembourg Gardens. Today I won't linger long
On the obvious point that her name is lost to history
As the name of the graveyard where her bones
Have been crumbling to dust for over a century.
The streets we're to wander will shine more brightly
Now that it's clear the day of her death
Is of little importance compared to the moment
Caught in the photograph as she makes her way
Through afternoon light like this toward the Seine,
Or compared to our walk as we pass the Gardens.
The cold rain that fell this morning has given way to sunshine.
The gleaming puddles reflect our mood
Just as they reflected hers as she stepped around them
Smiling to herself, happy that her audition
Went well this morning. After practicing scales
For years in a village whose name isn't recorded,
She can study in Paris with one of the masters
And serve the music according to laws more rigorous
Than any passed by the grand assemblies of Europe,
Laws I hope she always tried to obey.
No way of telling now how close her life
Came to the life she hoped for as she rambled,
On the day of the photograph, along the quay.
And why do I need to know it when she herself,
If offered a chance to peruse the book of the future,
Would likely shake her head no and turn away.
She wants to focus on the afternoon almost gone
As we want to focus now on breathing and savoring
While we stand on the bridge she stood on to watch
The steamers push up against the current or ease down.
This flickering light on the water as the boats pass by
Is the flow that many painters have tried to capture
Without holding too still. By the time these boats arrive
And unload the cargoes in distant provinces,
The flow may have carried us home across the ocean.
But to think of our leaving now is to wrong the moment.
We have to resist distraction as she resisted
If we want they city that bloomed for her
To bloom for us as her loyal followers.
– Carl Dennis (2002), published in Poetry (Chicago)
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| Édouard Vuillard Madame Hessel reclining on a sofa ca. 1899 oil on cardboard Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco |
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| Édouard Vuillard The Dressing Room, Madame Hessel reading at Amfréville 1906 oil and tempera on cardboard Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Édouard Vuillard Madame Hessel at home ca. 1908 oil on cardboard Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
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| Édouard Vuillard Madame Hessel, Château des Clayes ca. 1920 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Édouard Vuillard Woman in an interior, Madame Hessel at Les Clayes 1935 oil on paper Princeton University Art Museum |
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| Édouard Vuillard Marcelle Aron (Madame Tristan Bernard) 1914 distemper on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
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| Édouard Vuillard Portrait of Madame Guerin 1916-17 distemper on paper, mounted on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Édouard Vuillard Woman in blue ca. 1925-35 pastel Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
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| Édouard Vuillard Madame Gaboriaud 1931-32 distemper and pastel on linen Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut |
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| Édouard Vuillard Madame André Wormser and her children 1926-27 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |