How did Dorothea Tanning portray young women in her Surrealist paintings?

In her Surrealist paintings, Dorothea Tanning frequently portrayed young women as figures who appear to be at the mercy of intangible, often unsettling forces. Her work often depicts these subjects within meticulously detailed dreamworlds where they are juxtaposed with bizarre or metamorphosed objects.12

A notable example of this approach is her painting Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (1943), which features two female figures in a shabby, dreamlike hotel setting. One figure stands near a giant, tangled sunflower with her back to the viewer, while another appears exhausted and leans against a door. Both women are depicted with torn clothing, suggesting they have been engaged in a struggle—possibly with the sunflower itself.2

Tanning’s work is characterized by the presence of the irrational, creating scenes that feel simultaneously strange and familiar. By placing her subjects in these ambiguous and often menacing environments, she sought to depict "unknown but knowable states," suggesting that there is more to life than what is immediately visible to the eye.342