Madame Prosper Emile Weil at her desk

Between 1920 and 1940, Vuillard painted over 40 portraits for which he did numerous sketches and studies. While many of these were of artists, writers, actresses and other eminent personalities of the period, others were commissioned portraits of the Parisian bourgeoisie. While the finished works of this period were often criticised for their detached pandering to the tastes of his subjects, the drawings and studies retained the artist's characteristic freedom of composition. Vuillard often stated "I don't paint portraits. I paint people in their homes."

'Madam Prosper Emile Weil at her desk' c.1923 is a very characteristic depiction of a woman as if spied on in the privacy of her study with its casual 'chopping' of furniture around the edges of the picture plain reminding us of the fact that Vuillard was also a keen amateur photographer.