One of several works based on store windows at Eatons, this painting reveals many of the preoccupations of the Window Series: store window dummies and textiles instead of people, multiple layers of reflection, repetition, inverted text. In its concentration on clothing as a sign of femininity, even to the exclusion of any actual women, the painting is the fullest logical extension of a tradition of female portraiture best exemplified by Ingres, who excelled at textile effects but whose women were generic. The title describes another major cultural formulation from which women were excluded. |
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