Paul Rosenberg, Paris
Sam Salz, Inc., New York
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York
Gilbert Kahn, New York (acquired from the above in 1949)
Private Collection, New York (by descent from the above)
Sale: Christie's, New York, May 5, 2004, lot 250
Private Collection (acquired at the above sale and sold: Christie's, London, June 18, 2007, lot 33)
Acquired at the above sale

Antoine Solomon & Guy Cogeval, Vuillard: The Inexhaustible Glance, Critical Catalogue of Paintings and Pastels, vol. III, Paris, 2003, no. X-107, illustrated p. 1228

For the complete condition report prepared by Simon Parkes Art Conservation please contact the Impressionist & Modern Art Department at +1 (212) 606 – 7360.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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This view of Square Berlioz is one of Vuillard's most comprehensive treatments of a theme dear to his heart—the daily activities in the small square outside his apartment at 26, rue de Calais. From October 1904 to 1908, Vuillard and his mother had been living in the Passy district in the seizième but he never felt really at home there. He missed the area around the Places des Batignolles and was delighted when he found the apartment where he would live for the next eighteen years. From his fifth-floor balcony he could see the small square which was known as the Place Berlioz after the statue of the composer before its name was changed to Vintimille after the town of Ventimiglia on the Franco-Italian border.

In November 1908, Vuillard had exhibited at Bernheim-Jeune the four panels known as the Rues de Paris. They were purchased by the popular dramatist Henry Bernstein who immediately commissioned four additionalꦆ panels of the same format showing scenes of Parisian streets. For the second group Vuillard chose not the rather anonymous streets of the first set but rather the view from his window at 26, rue de𒅌 Calais.

In June 1915 Vuillard🍨 was commissioned to complete another monumental decorative project, this time for Emile Lévy, and it is at this time he created the present work, a superb and animated depiction of this natural haven in the mist of bustling Paris. The work duly corresponds essentially with the subject of the original decorative projects, although Vuillard's development as an artist o💧ver the intervening decade resulted in a subtle transformation in his lively handling of the motif.