French singer and actress Juliette Gréco was dubbed la muse de l'existentialisme (“the muse of existentialism”), and counted Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Jean Cocteau amongst those inspired by her prowess for transmitting melancholic expression. The spare haunting melody of “L’Ombre” serves as a perfect framework on which to hang François Mauriac’s gloomy poem as expressed through Gréco’s infinitely dusky voice, and like Alberto Giacometti’s The Cage, the song embodies a sense of isolation through negative space. In both works, it’s what's stripped away that matters most. Greco sang, “Je cherchais votre coeur comme je cherchais l’ombre” (“I searched for your heart as I searched for the shade”), and one might imagine Giacometti’s figures sharing this sentiment of endless seeking from within a state of sorrow.