The artwork titled “Sympathy,” created by artist Remedios Varo in 1955, is an oil painting on masonite that belongs to the Surrealism movement. Measuring 95 by 83.5 centimeters, it is classified as a symbolic painting, featuring the fantastical and dream-like elements characteristic of Varo’s work.
“Sympathy” depicts an ethereal interior scene in which the boundaries between the organic and the geometric blur harmoniously. At the painting’s core is an anthropomorphic figure, likely a portrayal of a woman based on Varo’s typical subjects, who is sitting at a table and tenderly interacts with a whimsical, cat-like creature. Both figures share a peculiarly kindred connection which is highlighted by their mirroring fiery orange hair and the fragile filaments that seem to bind them together, symbolizing a cosmic or telepathic form of communication.
The cat-like being is positioned upon the table covered with a crimson cloth, its body defying the ordinary constraints of physical form—bending and arching with a fluid grace. The surrounding space is subdued in palette, yet rich with textured surfaces that suggest both decay and resilience. Abstracted dandelion-like forms interconnect through delicate lines, creating a constellation map that envelops the subjects in a celestial web, while the room’s architecture further deepens the scene’s enigmatic quality with a suggestion of vanishing corridors and mystical doorways, enhancing the sense of an otherworldly refuge away from conventional reality.
This work, like much of Varo’s oeuvre, invites interpretation through the symbolic layers it presents, alluding to themes of empathy, mystical connections, and the intimate kinship between beings of a shared universe.
