Portrait of the Artist's Wife 1912

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin drew this portrait of his wife using graphite on paper; you can see the soft, almost blurry quality of the marks. You can imagine him moving the pencil gently, building up the shadows and forms. I think about the artist looking intently at his wife, trying to capture her likeness, but also something of her spirit. The light falls softly on her face, and the delicate lines suggest a quiet strength. I find myself wondering what their life was like, what conversations they shared. You know, the intimacy of sharing your life with another person. But what’s also great is that he doesn’t get bogged down in detail. Instead, he lets the pencil dance across the paper, finding the essential lines and shapes that make up her face. It reminds me a bit of other portrait drawings, where the artist is trying to capture something fleeting and ephemeral. This feels less about a perfect likeness, and more about a feeling, an impression. And that’s what I love about drawing and painting - it’s an ongoing conversation across time, where we can learn from each other and find new ways of seeing the world.