Study for Shades of Mont Sainte Victoire

"The lower half of Mont Sainte-Victoire (let us say "half," though the painting is not quite bisected by the horizontal line that runs across it, representing the edge of a pool) seems a reflection of the upper half, both pictorially and geometrically. Thus the sacred mountain of Modernism--after all it was the obsessive theme of Cézanne--appears to be reflected in the water, although in strict truth, the upper half, shown as a landscape, should have the mountain in the background and not quite at the reflecting pool's shore, where it would have to be in order to cause the reflection we see in the picture. Along the shore are various figures, in various stages of undress, or in the act of undressingIn any case Derrida himself is portrayed about a third of the way across removing a coverall, while in front of him a poilu seems to test the water. As we move further right, various figures, all of them male, are partially immersed in the water. It is dawn (or dusk): the sun is setting (or the moon is rising?) behind Mont Sainte-Victoire. I opt for it being twilight: that gives the meaning of The Twilight of Modernism. It is still spooky, elegiac. The bathing figures could be souls or spirits engaged in ritual cleansing or purification or even of purgation. The water is calm, almost mirrorlike. In it one sees the figures reflected. Until one looks closely. Then one begins to see that the reflections do not perfectly match the figures to which they appear to correspond"
(A. Danto, "Mark Tansey: The Picture Within the Picture," Mark Tansey: Visions and Revisions, New York, 1992, p. 27).