While vacationing in Brittany during the summers of 1908 and 1909, Vuillard produced a large number of landscapes, including La Villa Les Écluses, St. Jacut, Brittany, a prominent landmark of that area. During his summer vacations, Vuillard felt the freedom to experiment with new media and techniques. This painting is especially remarkable for its use of the medium peinture à la colle, or distemper, which uses animal glue as a binding agent. Because of the texture of the paper support and the matte surface that results from the artist’s use of distemper, the resulting work emphasizes flat shapes and silhouettes as opposed to three-dimensional forms.