Shallow 

Volodymyr Orlovsky painted 'Shallow' in oils sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. Orlovsky was a Ukrainian painter who spent his career working within the academic system of Imperial Russia. In this work, he trains his eye on an unpopulated seascape, a genre that had become extremely popular across Europe and Russia as a way of representing national identity. We see this in the artist's almost scientific study of light and atmosphere, and his rendering of water and sky. The painting displays an interest in naturalism. This was a popular mode for Russian artists interested in bringing their work in line with contemporary European trends. It also allowed them to make pictures that would appeal to a new class of patron. Historians of Russian art are increasingly focusing on the social and institutional conditions of art production to better understand this fascinating period. Archival sources can shed light on the complex networks that shaped artistic careers during the late Imperial era.