In this delicate, dreamlike lithograph, Édouard Vuillard lends his poetic sensibility to the printed program for the French premiere of Rosmersholm by Henrik Ibsen, presented by Lugné-Poe's Théâtre de l’Œuvre—Paris’s avant-garde bastion of Symbolist theatre.
The lithograph, rendered in soft graphite tones on buff paper, merges text and drawing into a single atmospheric composition. Vuillard's intimate domestic interior, populated by ghostly figures and sparse furniture, subtly evokes the psychological tension and oppressive past that haunts Ibsen’s play. The wall of gridded windows and patterned wallpaper suggests a cloistered environment—a visual metaphor for the emotional constraints of bourgeois morality central to Rosmersholm.
Rather than separating image and typography, Vuillard weaves the cast list, venue, and credits directly into the composition with free-flowing, handwritten script. This reflects the ethos of the Nabis group, of which Vuillard was a key member: a rejection of academic separation between fine and decorative arts, and a celebration of unified visual language.
The cast list includes pioneering actors of the Symbolist stage, such as Aurélien Lugné-Poe himself as Pastor Rosmer, alongside Mademoiselle Bady as Rebecca West. The performance took place at the Bouffes du Nord on October 8, 1893, one of the earliest serious stagings of Ibsen in France.
This program is not merely a piece of theatre ephemera but an early example of collaboration between modern artists and radical dramaturgy—an emblem of the Gesamtkunstwerk (total artwork) ideal pursued by Théâtre de l’Œuvre. Vuillard’s lithograph, ephemeral yet profound, endures as a poetic document of fin-de-siècle theatrical modernism.
Theater - Avant-Garde - France
Ref : Roger-Marx 16 - Aitken 58
Good condition
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