The Marvelous Garden

Beneath a leafless tree strung with balloons and a wire globe, a crowd of children in fairy wings, a sailor suit, and a bright tracksuit surrounds a black-robed figure with a skull-white face and gold fleur-de-lis pattern. Two girls with gold halos hold a pink toy horse, while a peacock perches on the wire frame and owls sit in the branches above. On the grass below, other children play with wooden blocks, a toy giraffe, a striped tiger, and small lambs among scattered daisies.

Muted greens and greys set off patches of red balloons and gilded ornament, painted in flat, decorative strokes with sharply outlined figures. The layered, stage-like arrangement of costumed children and toy animals reads as a fairy-tale tableau, its innocence shadowed by the pale, mask-like face at the center into an unsettling, dreamlike scene.