Girl in a Fur Coat 1946

Sergiy Grigoriev painted this girl, bundled in a thick fur coat, with visible strokes and a palette of muted greens and browns. The painting feels like an attempt to capture a fleeting moment. There’s a sensitivity in the way Grigoriev handles the paint, building up the form of the girl's face and coat with loose, gestural marks. I wonder if he was thinking about capturing the weight of the coat, the sensation of being warm and protected against the cold. Look at the way he uses short, choppy strokes to suggest the texture of the fur, creating a sense of volume and depth. It reminds me of some of Van Gogh’s portraits, where the brushstrokes become almost sculptural, adding to the emotional intensity of the image. It’s as if Grigoriev wanted to create a feeling as much as a likeness, a moment of shared humanity. Painters do that all the time, you know, we are always in conversation with each other, inspired and inspiring.