School of XVII Century 1903

Andrei Ryabushkin made "School of XVII Century," sometime before 1904, probably using oils on canvas, and only shades of grey. The brushwork in this picture feels so earnest, like he’s really trying to get at something. This grey scene feels like something remembered, the way memory simplifies what we’ve seen, making a new world. You can almost see him working, trying to fix in place a classroom scene from a Russia long gone. I wonder what Ryabushkin was like? Maybe he was a bit like one of these children, earnestly trying to take in all of the information coming his way. Or perhaps he was more like the teacher, watching over everything with a practiced eye. You can see the influence of artists like Repin in the way Ryabushkin captures light and shadow. We can see in his paintings how artists are in an ongoing dialogue across time, influencing each other. Isn't it nice to imagine the conversation between the artists continuing to this day?