Eugene (Portrait of the artist's son) 1917

Zinaida Serebriakova captured her son Eugene in a quiet moment, with strokes of blues and warm browns that feel so intimate. You can almost feel the mother's gaze as she paints him. I wonder if Eugene knew he was being watched. Maybe there were many sittings, or perhaps she caught this in one go, trying to steal his likeness as he sat there, lost in his book. There's a lovely mix of precision and looseness in the painting. Look at the way she’s carefully described his face in profile, then notice how the brushstrokes around him become so gestural and free. What’s so compelling is how she manages to combine tenderness with painterly curiosity. It reminds me of Gwen John, in the way the everyday is made sublime through observation. Isn’t it interesting how artists see their world, their families, and translate it into something we can all connect with?