“Woman sitting on a bed”, 1993, by George Segal: Montreal Museum of Fine Art - Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal,
www.mbam.qc.ca/en/works/17486

In the original the window is blackened like the rest of the sculpture. Here it reflects the background from the gallery, which creates an illusion that the window opens onto a street with passers by. The room is unadorned, with simple furniture lit by a single bulb from a cheap lamp. Is it an apartment, a cheap hotel? The bed is crumpled. A garment hangs by the chair. The blind is up but the window is closed.

Is the room silent? Perhaps a radio or a TV is playing.

The woman is slumped, the light falls on her shoulders, she seems tired. She is naked. Is that from the heat; has she just got out of bed, or is about to go to bed? Has a lover just left, or is she waiting for the lover to arrive, perhaps not gone but forever out of sight? A lover or a client, a man or a woman, or no one?

A woman sitting on a bed.