The Princesse Who Had Never Laugh

An ornately carved wooden window with lattice shutters and a projecting balcony sits on a weathered red-brick facade, wires strung overhead. A young woman in colorful dress leans out of the open central window, looking down. Below, a dark doorway is flanked by two walls hung with carved, painted masks - demons, deities and human faces in red, gold, white and green.

Brickwork is rendered in warm, textured reds and oranges against the grey-brown patina of old timber carving. The masks form a busy, saturated mosaic of color, reading almost as a market display, while the shadowed window above stays subdued and quiet. The realistic, detailed handling gives the scene a documentary, faintly uncanny street atmosphere, at odds with its fairy-tale title.