Portrait of pianist Rachel Slonimskaya 1922

This is a portrait of pianist Rachel Slonimskaya by Boris Kustodiev, and you can see straight away that it’s oil on canvas. The way the artist uses color is really striking. It's not about matching reality, it's about feeling and expression. You can see the process in the final piece; the way the brushstrokes dance around. Now, check out the fur coat. It's painted with such thick, juicy strokes. You can almost feel the texture of it. Then, look at the background. It’s wispy, almost dreamlike. The water and sky blend together. The brushstrokes feel light and airy, like they’re barely touching the canvas. It gives the painting a sense of depth. It makes you feel like you could step right into it. Kustodiev reminds me a little of someone like Vuillard, in that he knew how to capture a mood. But there's also something uniquely Russian about it, a sort of melancholic beauty. It shows how art is a conversation across time and places. It is never about one definitive answer.