La robe rayée

On 12 November 1890 a new operetta opened at the Bouffes-Parisiens theatre in Paris. Miss Helyett, with music by Edmond Audran, starred a 20-year-old singer from the Odéon called Biana Duhamel in the title role, and it ran for hundreds of performances. The Musée d'Orsay identifies her as the woman in this small oval picture, painted around 1890 or 1891, in the season of her success. She looks back over her shoulder with a half smile, one hand on her hip, in a white dress striped with blue and tied with a blue sash at the waist. Behind her is a pale yellow panel with a loose drawing on it. Vuillard painted her in oil on cardboard, about 36 centimetres high. Its first known owner was his friend the painter Ker-Xavier Roussel, possibly as a gift from the artist.