Women 1902

Boris Kustodiev made this painting, Women, with oil paints, though we don't know exactly when. Look at how Kustodiev builds up the image with these broad, almost chunky strokes. The colors are rich and earthy - reds, browns, blues - all grounded in the white of the snow. It's a process of layering, pushing, and pulling the paint. You can see it in the way the light catches the folds of their skirts. There’s a kind of awkward beauty here. Notice the woman on the left, she is holding a red object, perhaps a blanket, with her gloved hands. The fabric bunches up in her arms in a way that feels both protective and cumbersome. The textures are all tactile, you can almost feel the cold air on your cheeks and the weight of the shawls. Kustodiev’s work is often compared to that of the earlier Russian painter, Alexei Venetsianov. Both artists find a certain kind of dignity in the everyday lives of regular folk. It's a conversation about how we see and value the world around us. There's no single answer, and that's precisely what makes it so compelling.