Woman in a Cave 1936

Paul Delvaux made this strange painting called, *Woman in a Cave* and well, it looks like it was created using oil on canvas. The colour palette here is really muted, like a faded memory, which makes the whole scene feel like it exists in a dream-like state. The paint handling is so smooth and controlled, creating this almost surreal, hyper-realistic quality. I'm really drawn to the texture of the cave walls and the weird lace train attached to the mirror which looks so crisp. But it’s so strange to see all this detail and then have the woman's skin rendered so flat. It's like a subtle comment on artifice and reality, the surface versus what lies beneath. Delvaux reminds me of other painters like Balthus, who also explored strange, dreamlike, and often unsettling imagery. I never really know what to make of either of their work. What do you think?