#554 Les Deux Soeurs (1925)

The name the same as the
few years earlier de Chirico. 
Different subjects, though the
two pairs have a commonality. 

Both portrayed as if for visual 
merchandising — which is 
what they inherently are. The 
one — the implied mannequins — 

for dresses. The other for acc-
essories, as if for scarves, or 
necklaces. That's the macro 
view. The micro? Two sisters —

are they really? The de Chirico 
pair are differently colored, 
une rouge, une blanc. One 
fairly featureless — bald, eye-



less; the other with hair & 
mask-like features, dark open-
ings that might serve as eyes. 
Enigmatic, like a major part of 

the painter's work, & nothing
sisterly-seeming about them. 
Then the Magritte . . .Closing 
the eyes. As simple an act. That

is what Amiri Baraka wrote 
years later, about a totally
different subject. Are these
sisters? Or could they both

be Magritte's muse, his wife
Georgette? Quite possibly so.
But more simply, a question to 
be asked but never answered.