Portrait of the Artist Tatiana Chizhova 1924

Boris Kustodiev painted this portrait of Tatiana Chizhova using oil on canvas, and you know, there’s something so immediate and engaging about the way he’s captured her. The colour palette here is subdued, a range of blacks, reds and greens, but it's the texture that really grabs me. There's a wonderful contrast between the smooth, almost porcelain-like finish of her face, and the way the brushstrokes become more visible and expressive as you move down the canvas. Take a look at the way the paint is applied on her dark dress, almost like a veil. Think about Manet, another artist who wasn’t afraid to play with a flattened picture plane and direct, almost confrontational portraiture, just like this one. And isn't that how art evolves? Artists riffing off each other across time, creating this ongoing conversation through paint.