L'interrogatoire du prisonnier

L'interrogatoire du prisonnier (The Interrogation of the Prisoner) is an unusual departure from Vuillard's characteristic domestic subjects, suggesting either a theatrical or literary source or an engagement with a specific historical or news event. Vuillard occasionally drew on theatrical subjects through his extensive connections with the Parisian stage, and this title's dramatic content — authority and captivity, interrogation and resistance — has no parallel in his usual domestic repertoire. The work may relate to one of his theatre programme illustrations or to a specific play from the Symbolist or naturalist repertoire.

The dramatic subject would have required Vuillard to work with a different compositional logic from his domestic scenes — stronger contrasts, more emphatic spatial relationships between interrogator and prisoner. The available evidence suggests he approached even this unusual subject with his characteristic restraint in tonal contrast.