Homage to Mack Sennett, 1934 by Rene Magritte

Everyone is aware of the feelings that the clothes of someone we love can arouse. But it is not only the erotic that is involved, for the clothes of the dead often have the power of conjuring up their presence again. No one can say whether it is mainly the projection of memories, which take shape as an "image" through the clothes, or whether it is the clothes themselves, in all the various shapes the body molded them into, which touch one's sensual and visual nerve center.

This is a sober and quietly painted work. The door of a perfectly ordinary wardrobe, such as one can still find in depressing, shabby hotel rooms in small provincial towns, has been pulled open, and a life full of promise blossoms forth from the long, narrow woman's dress, which both conceals and reveals. A transparency has been created which has all the attraction and perversity of the ambiguous. There is an intimate atmosphere of twilight and boudoir secrets in this small painting.