Julia Bloch Frey ’66 has released a new book titled Venus Betrayed: The Private World of Édouard Vuillard. Drawing on insights and images from Édouard Vuillard (1868–1940)’s still unpublished diaries, Julia Frey leads the reader on a journey through Vuillard’s private world of cabarets, experimental theatres, holiday resorts, and intimate boudoirs.
Julia’s book has been reviewed by Maxwell Carter, head of the Impressionist and modern art department at Christie’s in New York, and published in the Wall Street Journal:
“How does one wring dramatic interest and sustained insight from the cloistered routines of an artist who lived with his mother; never married; seldom traveled; and, with the exception of his youthful Nabism, recoiled from the dominant movements of the day? Julia Frey, an emeritus professor of French and art history at the University of Colorado, has done so in her marvelous, beautifully illustrated “Venus Betrayed: The Private World of Édouard Vuillard.”
Julia was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1943 and holds two BA degrees from Antioch College; one in Design and one in French. Julia was originally a Design Major at Antioch but went on foreign study programs offered via Antioch Education Abroad (AEA) twice—once to France and once to Mexico. As a result, she was able to apply most of her credits to language study even if the courses were in Art. This allowed Julia to apply to graduate programs in French. Julia went on to obtain an MA from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MPhil and PhD in French literature from Yale University. She has studied printmaking with S.W. Hayter at Atelier 17 in Paris and has previously taught at Yale University, Brown University, Sarah Lawrence College, and the Université de Paris I.
