Portrait of Y.E. Kustodieva 1925

Boris Kustodiev made this portrait of Y.E. Kustodieva in charcoal. The tonal gradations and the soft blending create an intimate portrayal. Look at the way the charcoal renders the fur collar, how Kustodiev captures the dense texture with layers of smudged marks, it's almost palpable. Then see how he contrasts it with the smoother treatment of her face. The subtle variations in shading give her features depth, but there's a certain flatness, a deliberate simplicity, in the way he defines the planes of her face. It gives the whole image a kind of modernist feel, pushing against the conventions of traditional portraiture. I'm reminded of Käthe Kollwitz's drawings. There's a similar sense of humanism. Both artists had a great ability to invest their images with deep emotional resonance through subtle and powerful mark-making. Art is a way of embracing ambiguity, and suggesting meaning.