The Two Sisters-in-Law (1899): Art, History and Details

The Two Sisters-in-Law (1899) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868–1940).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In this hushed lithograph, Misia Natanson, Vuillard’s artistic muse, enjoys an intimate conversation with her sister-in-law, actress Marthe Mellot. The two women lean against a piano, an instrument that Misia played brilliantly.

Object facts

• Title: The Two Sisters-in-Law
• Date: 1899
• Creator attribution: Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868–1940)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Print
• Technique: color lithograph
• Dimensions: Sheet: 44.8 x 36 cm (17 5/8 x 14 3/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Lithograph
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1951.65.13

A detail from the museum

The muses for this print, Misia Natanson and Marthe Mellot, were accomplished in their own right. Natanson was a pianist and patron of the arts, while Mellot was a film actress.

Collection credit

Gift of the Hanna Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Chapin, Mary Weaver. “Interior Dramas.’” In Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis, Paris, 1889-1900. Mary Weaver Chapin and Heather Lemonedes Brown, 40-93. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2021.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.