Portrait of A.I. Kunina 1921

Zinaida Serebriakova painted this portrait of A.I. Kunina in watercolour. She uses a gentle palette of dusky blues, browns, and pinks to create a work that feels both intimate and immediate. It’s like she's trying to capture not just a likeness, but the essence of a person in a moment. Look at the surface. You can see how the fluid washes of color blend and bleed into each other, particularly in the sitter’s cheeks and around the edges of her hair, creating a sense of softness and depth. The delicate strokes capture the light on her face, while the darker tones define the contours, giving her features shape and volume. See that floral detail on her dress? Each tiny bloom is rendered with precision, yet the overall effect is one of effortless grace. I think Serebriakova had a similar sensitivity as Berthe Morisot, particularly in the way she balances realism with a sense of poetic reverie. And like Morisot, Serebriakova reminds us that art is not just about representation, but about feeling, perception, and interpretation.