Lake in Tsarskoe Selo 1912

This painting of a lake was made by Zinaida Serebriakova with oils, and I imagine it was alla prima. The way Serebriakova handles the paint here is interesting, especially in the way she captures light. Look how she uses these vertical brushstrokes to define the columns, almost like quick notations of form. Then notice how this contrasts with the more fluid horizontal strokes across the lake, or the mottled brush marks in the sky. The paint is thinly applied in some areas, allowing the texture of the canvas to peek through, which gives it a kind of immediacy. But then other areas, like the foliage, have thicker impasto, giving a sense of depth. She almost reminds me of a Russian Berthe Morisot, especially in her informal treatment of paint. Ultimately, this painting feels very contemporary in its embrace of process and the way it captures a transient moment in time.