Dreams

A woman shown in profile, with dark hair and a tall pleated white ruff collar, leans over a smaller reclining figure with long red hair whose body is wound in a spiraling blue ribbon like a cocoon. The standing woman wears an angular blue-and-pink robe with sharply folded sleeves. Both figures are set against a mottled teal-green background scattered with small painted leaves and red berries.

The forms are rendered in flat, decorative planes with hard outlines and angular drapery folds, cool blues and greens warmed only by the coral-pink lining of the robe. The stylization recalls ornamental figure painting rather than naturalistic depiction. The tender, protective pose and the enclosed, dreamlike setting give the scene a hushed, mysterious tenderness.