View of the Peter and Paul Fortress 1921

Zinaida Serebriakova made this moody watercolour of the Peter and Paul Fortress, perhaps from life, quickly, in one go. I imagine Zinaida, trying to capture the scene with those dark, sweeping marks. I imagine her, squinting, trying to capture the light glinting on the water with grey and white washes. There’s something so immediate and raw about the surface. It's like she's wrestling with the light and atmosphere, trying to pin it down before it disappears. The texture is thin and translucent. The quick, loose brushstrokes give it a feeling of movement, like the water is rippling and the clouds are shifting. That dark, expressive sky feels so Russian somehow! You can see how artists like Serebriakova were in conversation with painters across Europe, but there’s a certain drama and melancholy to the work that feels deeply rooted in her own experience. It's like she's channeling something bigger than herself. Painting is a form of embodied expression. It embraces ambiguity, uncertainty, and allows for multiple interpretations.