In the twentieth century, street photographers such as Eugène Atget (1857–1927) and Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) in France and Manuel Álvarez Bravo (1902–2002) in Mexico made use of the uncanny nature of mannequins inside shop windows and the reflective quality of the glass catching passersby to create arresting images that were embraced by the Surrealist movement. Show Window (Aparador) by Rufino Tamayo recalls this interest in windows and mannequins as an artistic theme.

Tamayo’s rendering of this subject in oil paint purposefully creates the illusionistic effects that occur naturally in its photographic predecessors. A figure looking into the store is reflected in the window’s surface, implying a presence outside the picture frame in the space occupied by the viewer. Tamayo invokes the human figure through this window reflection as well as the mannequins modeling women’s undergarments.