The girl at the window 1928

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin painted "The Girl at the Window" with oils on canvas. The surface has a real chalky, matte quality. I love how Petrov-Vodkin builds a composition with these ochre and brown tones. The face is so present! I wonder what he was thinking when he made it. Maybe he wanted to show her thoughtfulness, the depth of her gaze. She doesn't look out so much as inwards, right? Petrov-Vodkin used paint to create a sense of stillness, like a pause in time. There's something very modern about that. Like Morandi with his bottles, it suggests an alternative to what painting can be. But also, it seems very Russian, very connected to the longer history of figurative painting. It makes me think about how painting is a conversation across time. Each painter is inspired by another, and then their painting in turn inspires the next one. It’s a beautiful kind of human connection.