Illustration for Nikolay Nekrasov poem "Bees" 1921

Editor: This is Boris Kustodiev's watercolor and colored pencil illustration, "Bees," created in 1921 for a poem by Nikolay Nekrasov. There's a strange sense of serenity in the way the landscape and human activity blend, a muted color palette despite the presence of distinct zones: a verdant meadow filled with beehives in the foreground with someone apparently shouting out toward a distant flood of water swallowing the banks with figures in a distant boat . What do you make of the contrast, this position between labor and a kind of almost apocalyptic landscape? Curator: Oh, this is one of those pieces that hums with unspoken stories, doesn’t it? What you perceive as almost apocalyptic I read as almost hopeful in that landscape… consider this. Kustodiev painted this in 1921, a period of tremendous social and political upheaval in Russia; he himself was suffering from tuberculosis, and yet here he depicts resilience! See the beekeeper hailing what could easily have washed them all away just weeks before; the placement of the hives near water gives an air of self sufficiency that only someone aware of real dangers could. You almost feel like you could stick your foot into that painted meadow. What colors jump out at you as evocative and suggestive? Editor: I do agree there's something powerful about the lone figure communicating outward. Perhaps I am focusing too much on the looming waters. Maybe that saturated red robe suggests this connection to the land even during an ecological shift? What did he think when painting the robes with saturated watercolours? Curator: Exactly! That dash of red screams of life. And think about watercolors; they run, blend, and change much like the flooding river itself, and here Kustodiev has captured something so fundamental about his land and history: struggle and renewal existing in the same frame. It makes you wonder what aspects of modern life future illustrators will draw upon for symbolic weight… Editor: That really shifts my understanding of Kustodiev’s choice of medium! It makes me look differently at how illustrations convey messages. Curator: Glad to stir those fresh impressions!