Château des Clayes

In 1925, Vuillard’s dealer Jos Hessel and his wife, Lucy, bought the Château des Clayes, a country estate near Versailles, about fifteen miles west of Paris. A frequent guest, Vuillard had his own room in the château and spent increasingly long stretches there during the last twelve years of his life. Both the château’s interior and exterior, with its characteristic round tower, inspired many drawings and paintings, as did the expansive surrounding park. After Vuillard’s death, during World War II, Les Clayes was requisitioned by the Nazis and subsequently burned and mostly destroyed by German troops at the end of the war.