Milkmaid 1915

This ‘Milkmaid’ by Mykhailo Boychuk is painted with what looks like tempera paint. You can almost feel Boychuk standing in front of the canvas, contemplating the composition, thinking through his colour choices. The subdued palette of blues, browns and greens creates a solemn, almost melancholic mood. The surface is relatively flat, which gives it a slightly naive, but also iconic quality. The milkmaid is framed by trees; she seems burdened by her task. She is also grounded by it, as if she is inseparable from her environment. I wonder if Boychuk was thinking about other milkmaids in art history when he made this? There is the old masters' paintings such as Vermeer, and the later impressionist paintings too. Artists are always in dialogue, they are like DJs, sampling from each other and making something new.