There is much to sing about here. The glass of water. The fish out of it but still swimming happily around. The pawn, token of a game she has just learnt but is much taken by. Which she has natural advant- ages in since she can float above it & read the play as easily as she can read the myst- eries of the sea floor.
Which side has been taken & pressed upon the other one? Maybe with another artist it might be easy to determine — clean lines, symmetry, a space echoing what has been taken away from it — but Magritte rarely adheres to the strict guidelines for anything, & decalcomania is no except- ion. The curtain behind, in front of; the horizons evenly aligned but not the beach; one shoulder sloping more. En plein air the man blocks out the sea. The curtains ex- pose it as if he wasn't there.
