Portrait of Larianov 1913

Natalia Goncharova made this portrait of Mikhail Larianov, likely in Russia and sometime in the first decades of the twentieth century, using oil on canvas. In its angular presentation of a face, we see the influence of Cubism. But there's something else going on here too. The two artists, Goncharova and Larianov, were central figures in the Russian avant-garde movement, associated with a rejection of Western European artistic norms and an interest in pre-modern Russian folk art. If you look closely, you might notice the orange face seems to be marked with lines, and some scholars suggest that these are a reference to the practice of face-painting in some Russian folk traditions. The exact meanings of these face markings remain unclear, but the painting as a whole illustrates the artist's desire to forge a uniquely Russian form of modern art. As art historians, we try to carefully examine these signs and symbols in the context of historical source material such as folk songs, religious texts, and critical writings. This helps us to understand the complex relationship between art and cultural identity.