Boy musician 1928

Zinaida Serebriakova made this pastel drawing of a Boy Musician in Morocco in 1928. Look at the marks she made in the paper, like a soft breeze, building up colors that are soft and sensual. The red of the boy’s hands feels tender, as though she is holding him in her mind, wondering about the sounds he might make with his instrument. I think that, like me, Serebriakova was probably interested in how to describe the human form, not just by its outline but by what lies beneath. Here, she is looking at the boy’s hands as she describes a whole world of musicality and creative endeavor. It makes me think of Henri Matisse’s paintings made around the same time. Serebriakova, like Matisse, was part of an ongoing exchange of ideas, inspiring creativity across time. This piece embodies ambiguity, inviting multiple interpretations and meanings, and not just one fixed or definitive reading.