Nude. Sketch 1917

Zinaida Serebriakova’s sketch of a nude, undated here, might appear as just an exercise in form, but we can consider its wider context. Serebriakova was part of the Russian artistic elite, and the sketch likely dates from before the 1917 Revolution. The Russian Academy of Arts was keen to emulate the West, and life drawing classes for women were fairly common. However, the revolutions in art and politics brought with them new social expectations. After the Revolution, Serebriakova’s art was deemed bourgeois and she struggled to make ends meet in the new Soviet environment. The politics of imagery had shifted; what was once progressive was now considered outdated. Historians of art can use institutional archives, personal letters and other documents to better understand the shifts in cultural values that affect the production and reception of art.