Autumn Evening (sketch for a panel) 1904

Editor: This is "Autumn Evening (sketch for a panel)" by Victor Borisov-Musatov, created around 1904. It’s a watercolor currently housed at the Tretyakov Gallery. It evokes this sort of dreamlike nostalgia. The figures, almost ghosts, seem to be floating through the landscape. What strikes you when you look at it? Curator: It’s a whisper, isn’t it? A half-remembered melody played on a dusty piano. I see fading beauty, that ache of knowing time relentlessly marches on. Notice the way the watercolor bleeds and blurs, it almost seems like he's trying to capture a feeling more than a scene. Borisov-Musatov was fascinated with a romanticized past, weren’t they all, and there’s such yearning here, isn’t there? The ladies are draped in period dresses. It's less a portrait and more a stage where fleeting beauty takes precedence. Editor: Yes, exactly! It is more the sensation of a moment, rather than documenting the people in that space, or even what that space looked like. It seems they're purposefully not interacting. Is that typical of Symbolist art, or more unique to Borisov-Musatov? Curator: Good question! I would say the Symbolists as a whole were more interested in individual inner states, it wouldn't surprise me at all that there isn't interaction among the women portrayed here, though the stillness might be especially potent with Borisov-Musatov due to his preoccupation with the passage of time. Look how the architectural presence in the background dwarfs those figures as well. What story do you think is unfolding? Editor: That's true, I did focus mainly on the figures up front! Well, maybe it’s about the ephemeral nature of beauty and memory. The figures fade as autumn turns to winter and those grand estates get shut up again for the winter. Curator: Ah, yes! A lovely, melancholy dance of letting go. Makes you want to go find an old photo album, doesn’t it? Editor: It really does! Thanks, I hadn't even noticed those specific things. Now the scene feels much more wistful.