La princesse Marthe Bibesco

Princess Marthe Bibesco was a Romanian-French aristocrat, novelist, and celebrated beauty who moved in the highest circles of Paris society in the early twentieth century. She published widely — Marcel Proust was among her admirers and correspondents — and her Paris home was a gathering point for the literary and aristocratic worlds. Vuillard's commission to paint her portrait placed him within an aristocratic milieu that differed from the upper-bourgeois professional families who made up most of his clientele, and he treated it with his characteristic tact: the princess is depicted with refinement but not toadying, present but never idealised.

Vuillard places the princess in an opulent interior with rich furnishings that allow him to exploit his most elaborate pattern-weaving technique. The sitter's face is clearly observed and more specifically rendered than the surrounding setting. The palette is warm and jewel-toned, appropriate to the aristocratic milieu.