Schoolgirls 1901

Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky made this painting of Schoolgirls with oil on canvas, but when exactly is not known. The textures are very much built up, a kind of dry-brush effect especially in the dresses of the girls. The palette is mostly muted blues and reds, with a soft light coming in from where exactly we don't know. This gives the painting a kind of softness that is very approachable. There is so much to see in the material of their skirts. The girl on the right with the blue dress has a plaid design which must have been made with multiple layers of glazes. Glazes are like transparent layers of colour that create luminosity within a painting, something that Titian would have been familiar with. This treatment of the fabric in the girl's skirt feels very important to the tone of the piece, as we come to understand the piece as a meeting point for both the painterly and the photographic.