During the 1890s, when he was part of the group of experimental young artists who called themselves the Nabis, Edouard Vuillard developed a painting style that incorporated broad areas of flat color, simple, stylized forms, and the decorative play of elegant line. His works of the period bear often-unsettling intimations of psychological, moral, and spiritual complexity. Even small paintings like this, jewel-like in the brilliance of its matte colors, suggest depths of emotional intensity. Here, Vuillard, bearded, depicts himself embracing his sister Marie (Mimi). In reality she was seven years his senior, but, with her long pigtail, she appears far younger than the artist. The strange melding of the two forms and the intense and febrile intimacy of the embrace hint at a troubling ambiguity in the dynamics of family life. In later years, Vuillard's family and friends, observed at moments of domestic intimacy, provided constant subjects for his art. Rarely, however, are the images as haunting and ambivalent. Christopher Riopelle, from Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections (1995), p. 205.