Autumn 1918

Boris Kustodiev made this painting, Autumn, in oil paint, and it’s got this fascinating combination of flat, almost poster-like rendering, and then areas where the brushwork is really loose. Look how he’s built up the sky, moving from darker blues at the top to a yellow-orange band on the horizon. It's so thin you can see the weave of the canvas coming through. Then right next to it, you have these brown and rust colored leaves painted with much thicker paint that feels both precise and chaotic at the same time. The colour scheme is amazing, especially the contrast between the subdued browns and blues and the pops of rust in the leaves. I’m reminded of Edward Hopper. Like his, this painting is melancholy, capturing the feeling of a world moving from vibrancy into decay. But Kustodiev allows us to find something beautiful in the change. It's more about feeling than seeing.