The monument to Peter I 1942

This is Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva’s wood engraving of the monument to Peter I. It was made in 1942. I’m looking at this scene, and can almost smell the ink. I imagine Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva inking the block and carefully transferring the image to paper. The monument is stark, powerful, rising upwards and dominating the composition. Look at how she’s used those sharp, angular lines to carve out the form. The sky is suggested by these sparse, almost nervous marks. They speak to the uncertain times in which this print was made. The monument of Peter I, however, is solid and imposing in comparison. I wonder if she was thinking about the weight of history, the stories we tell ourselves about who we are, or maybe even something about power itself. Maybe she's speaking to the power of printmaking, the power of sharing images far and wide.