Portrait of a Woman (Portrait of an Unknown) 1908

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin’s 'Portrait of a Woman' is like a scene from a play – all soft lighting and muted colors. I imagine him, brush in hand, circling, trying to capture this unknown woman's essence. What do we know about her? That high, elaborate headdress tells me she is someone of status, someone he feels needs to be captured in paint. Did he know her? Or was she, perhaps, a model? Those eyes are so dark and arresting, it makes me think that he really saw this woman, that this wasn't simply a representation of a body, but something deeper. There is a psychological truth there. The strange geometry of her dress is also so curious. How do these choices speak to the era, to the artist's wider practice? I imagine him looking at early icon paintings, the way those artists portrayed their figures. I wonder whether Petrov-Vodkin was thinking about them too, nodding to the past while making something very new. Artists, after all, are always in conversation with each other, remixing ideas.