Trading Pier in the Capital City.Sketch of set for C. Pugni`s ballet 1912

Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin made this sketch of a set for C. Pugni’s ballet, "Trading Pier in the Capital City," with gouache, watercolor, and charcoal on paper. The layering here, the way the colours bleed into each other, speaks to a fluid process. He's not precious, just building the image, finding it as he goes. There's a real material presence to this sketch. The charcoal lines give it structure, then the watercolor softens everything, like a memory. See how the buildings in the background are just suggested, not really defined? And the figures in the foreground are even more fleeting, just blobs of color. That arch at the top, with its stylized foliage and those quirky red figures, it's like a dream within a dream. It reminds me a little of Alexandra Exter's set designs – that same playful sense of space and color. And like Exter, Korovin isn't afraid to leave things unresolved, embracing the messy, ambiguous nature of art itself.