Boy In a Sailor Suit 

Boris Grigoriev painted "Boy in a Sailor Suit" using oil on canvas. The painting is dominated by the figure of a young boy, his crisp blue sailor suit contrasting with the patterned background of the armchair. The overall effect is one of a staged formality, with a hint of underlying tension. Consider how the textures play against each other. Grigoriev uses visible brushstrokes to build up the layers of paint, adding depth and volume to the boy’s figure and the fabric of the chair. The patterns on the chair are rendered with loose strokes of blues, browns and yellows that hint at floral and organic motifs, acting as a backdrop to the rigid geometric shapes of the boy’s clothing and the simple lines of the toy horse. The boy's gaze, directed away from the viewer, introduces a narrative ambiguity which implicates us, as viewers, in a dynamic interplay of looking and being looked at. As such, the painting encourages a reading where form and structure interact to convey complex social and psychological states.