Bathing Nude 1927

Zinaida Serebriakova sketched this bathing nude in pastel, and the process really shines through. You can almost feel her hand moving across the page. The blue pastel strokes give the impression of cool water, but they also reveal the support beneath in a way that disrupts any sense of illusion. There’s a beautiful tension between the way she models the form of the body, using these fleshy pinks and browns, and the sketchiness of the composition as a whole. The sharp lines of the support really bring this home – are we in the bath with her, or standing next to a table in the studio? Look at the unfinished sketch at the top of the page – a ghost of an idea – a fleeting, half-formed thought. There's a similar drawing by Degas, where his mark making is also very apparent, that comes to mind. Ultimately, it's this sense of openness that makes the work so inviting. It is as much about the process of looking as the thing being looked at.