Portrait of M. Benois 1910

Zinaida Serebriakova painted this portrait with oils, probably alla prima. She seems to have started with the face, using broad strokes of browns and creams to define M. Benois's features. I feel Serebriakova had a direct, unpretentious approach. I can see her stepping back, squinting, then lunging forward to capture the fall of light on his cheek, or the way his beard catches the light. The portrait is about capturing a likeness, but it’s also about paint, about the physicality of rendering a person. The way she’s handled his hands, clasped together so formally, creates an emotional tension, a sense of interiority. I wonder if she was thinking of other portraitists like John Singer Sargent, who also had a knack for capturing the essence of their sitters with confident brushwork. Artists are always in conversation, riffing off each other, pushing the boundaries of what paint can do. This portrait invites us to consider how paintings can be both records of a moment and deeply personal expressions.