Young Man with a Goatee 1907

Natalia Goncharova made this painting, Young Man with a Goatee, with oil on canvas. Look at how the ochre background glows with light, making the colours of the figure almost jump out. Goncharova must have worked fast, because the brushstrokes are so confident. You can really sense the process of painting, the way she mixed the pigment, how fluidly she moved the brush. The blues and pinks in his shirt are so alive, like they’re breathing. And that little goatee – it's just a tiny dab of paint, but it gives him so much character. I wonder what she was thinking as she painted him? Was he a friend, or just someone she saw on the street? It reminds me of other paintings of the time, artists capturing the world around them with bold strokes and vibrant colours. Painting is like a conversation, artists responding to each other across time. Goncharova’s work shows us how painting can capture a moment, a feeling, a person, and then leave it open for us to interpret, to add our own thoughts and experiences.