Dream of Fair Women shows Charles Goeller’s drawing table casually scattered with random objects including an ashtray full of cigarette butts, a rumpled sweater and partially eaten candy bar. Borrowing devices from the trompe l’loeil tradition, Goeller playfully engages the viewer in the drama unfolding under the bright spotlight of a desk lamp. Compositional elements direct the eye to the pink paper cutouts at center stage by either pointing directly, like the pencil and scissors, or encircling, as in the arrangement of the lamp, sweater and bottle. The selection of personal objects raises questions on their hidden meaning with a nostalgic tone evident in the chain of pink paper dolls. Delicately balanced on a desk tilting downward, the dolls suggest Goeller's interpretation of Alfred Tennyson’s poem of the same name, Dream of Fair Women (1833) about women facing unfortunate events: “In every land/I saw, wherever light illumineth,/Beauty and anguish walking hand in hand/The downward slope to death.” During World War II, Goeller created a popular cartoon figure, Angeline, symbolizing women’s wartime involvement, and the present painting calls to mind his interest in portraying this subject.