English Merya 1924

Boris Kustodiev made this watercolour painting of a costume design, ‘English Merya’, around the 1920s. Kustodiev worked within the politically turbulent years of the Russian Avant-Garde. During this time, artists were in an ideological battle with those more conservative figures attached to the Tsarist Academy of Art, the main cultural institution. This design seems to satirise Western influence. ‘Merya’ references a native tribe of Old Russia, whilst the ‘English’ part of the title, combined with the bright colours, cheap jewellery, and bold rose design, seems to ridicule the commercialisation of traditional Russian folk culture through Western eyes. The eyeglasses hanging off the skirt, might be a subtle reference to the myopic view of such colonial ventures. To understand these references better, one would need to look at how the Russian Avant-Garde responded to what they saw as the cultural elitism and the threat of Western culture, and to consider the role of costume in the cultural expression of the period.