M.Ya.Yasnaya 1917

Boris Grigoriev painted this portrait of M.Ya.Yasnaya, and looking at the brushwork, you can really feel him feeling his way through the painting. There's a kind of searching quality in the way he models the face, layering warm and cool tones to find the form. The paint isn't overworked, but the way he moves from light to dark feels really deliberate, like he's trying to capture not just her likeness, but something deeper. And then there are these moments where the painting sort of dissolves, especially in the hands. See how the fingers almost disappear into these pale washes? It makes you wonder what was going on with Grigoriev at the time – his style reminds me of Paula Modersohn-Becker’s, perhaps he had seen her work. But art is like that – a conversation across time, a constant exchange of ideas and emotions. Ultimately, it’s more about the questions it raises than the answers it gives.