Estate of the artist
Galerie Renout et Poyet, Paris
Sale: Christie's, London, July 3, 1981, lot 331a
Thomas Gibson, London
Montgomery Gallery, San Francisco
Sale: Sotheby's, London, April 1, 1987, lot 107
Lefevre Gallery (Alex. Reid & Lefevre, Ltd.), London
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, May 10, 1989, lot 330
Eastlake Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above

London, Marlborough Fine Art, Ltd., A Tribute to Paul Maze, 1967, no. 116, illustrated in the catalogue
Paris, La Cave, Edouard Vuillard, 1980
Houston, Museum of Fine Arts; Washington, D.C., Phillips Collection; New York, The Brooklyn Museum, Intimate Interiors of Edouard Vuillard, 1990, no. 30, illustrated in the catalogue
Berlin, Kunsthandel Wolfgang Werner, Edouard Vuillard. Intérieurs et paysages de Paris, 1992, no. 4, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Henry-Claude Cousseau & Deepak Ananth, "Les ruses de l'intimisme: remarques sur la modernité de Vuillard," in Vuillard, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyons, 1990, illustrated p. 167
Antoine Salomon & Guy Cogeval, Vuillard, Le regard innombrable, Catalogue critique des peintures et pastels, vol. I, Paris, 2003, no. IV-59, illustrated in color p. 262

Board is stable. Surface shows evidence of pooling varnish in the brown area at the lower right of the image. There is one tiny surface scuff to the right of the center of the lower left quadrant. Under UV light: areas of uneven and pooling varnish fluoresce throughout. There are a few tiny areas of possible retouching above the center of the right edge. Otherwise fine; the work is in very good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Through much of the artist's young life, Édouard Vuillard's mother and older sister ran a dressmaking business out of their family home. Accordingly, a number of the artist's pictures feature intimate glimpses into the quietly bustling world of the working women around whom he grew up. In the present work, the artist peeks around a large chiffonier to show the viewer a woman at rest in the atelier. Positioned amidst swatches of painted patterns evocative of colorful fabrics, the subject lays down her work and leans against her upraised arm. Madame Roussel au chiffonier is a tenderly recalled vision of youth and home. Jeanine Warnod writes: "Like many other great artists of the late 19^th century, Vuillard's delicately allusive expression of intense emotions made his art universal. [His] work is reminiscent of Proust's novels where eye and memory create an inner time. The viewer is also reminded of the obsessive repetition of domestic life in the plays of Ibsen and Strindberg as ghostly chiaroscuros and exacerbated sensitivity shroud the obsessive details in the flowery wallpaper and the trinkets accumulated on the mantelpiece" (Claire Frèches-Thory & Antoine Terrasse, The Nabis: Bonnard, Vuillard, and their Circle, New York, 1991, p. 23).