Portrait of Y.E. Kustodieva 1922

Boris Kustodiev made this portrait of Y.E. Kustodieva in 1922 with a graphic pencil. It's all about the process, isn't it? You can see the artist feeling his way through the shadows, finding the form with these gentle strokes. Look at the chair. It's like a dark, inviting hug, the graphite almost velvety. The weight of the lines anchors her to that spot. She’s deep in thought, or maybe just lost in the words on the page, but there’s a realness to the scene; the paper rendering gives us this unique insight into the material qualities of the scene. There is the fur, the textile covering the wall, the paper, the skin. Everything rendered in relation to everything else. Kustodiev reminds me a little of Vuillard, with that same domestic intimacy and attention to the beauty of the everyday, just without the colour. It’s a reminder that art isn’t about answers, but about opening up questions. What is she reading? What is she thinking?