Japanese Doll 1908

Boris Kustodiev made this painting, Japanese Doll, using oil paints and capturing a moment of childhood observation. There's a soft focus here, like the gentle blur of memory, and the paint is laid on with visible strokes, not trying to hide the hand of the artist. Look at the way the light catches the white dress. It's almost sculptural, built up with layers of paint. I think the process of looking is important here. The painting is like a lens, and the way Kustodiev renders details, or doesn't render them, shapes how we see. The doll, a rigid figure, is set against the looser rendering of the natural world outside the window, suggesting the contrast between the real and the imagined. There’s a definite nod to Impressionism in this piece, and you could easily compare this to Berthe Morisot, another artist who painted domestic scenes. Ultimately, it feels like Kustodiev is asking us to consider how we make sense of the world through what we see.