NY Times, June 28, 2004

Notice also that the lower, lighter-colored portion of the wall subverts expectation by ending behind the woman, rather than extending from behind her for the full length of the wall...

Close inspection of the original print version of this scanned-in image (in which the smallest details can be seen more easily) reveals that the lighter area is coincident with the vertical molding at the right end of the wall. This would argue in favor of it being a panel attached to the wall instead of casually placed against it. But if it's attached, what purpose does it serve covering only that portion of the wall?

Perhaps after the picture was taken the wall portion of the image was cleaned up digitally -- to make the figure of the woman stand out more dramatically. Then, in an expression of digital whimsy, the pixels of the original light area to the left of the figure were replaced by pixels of the color of the upper part of the wall.