Emerging from the bath 1928

Zinaida Serebriakova made this pastel drawing, ‘Emerging from the bath’, in Paris in 1928. At first glance, this intimate portrayal of a nude woman seems like a simple study of light and form. But its creation was conditioned by the artist's status as a White émigré, living in exile from her homeland. Serebriakova had remained a celebrated artist in Russia until the Revolution, but in 1924, she accepted a commission to paint a large panel for the Soviet pavilion at the Venice Biennale and travelled to Paris. However, she found herself unable to return. Considered a ‘bourgeois’ artist in the new Soviet state, Serebriakova was faced with the challenge of making a living in a very different cultural environment. She sought patronage through private portrait commissions and nudes which she could sell to a wider market. This image then is a result of historical and economic circumstances that shaped the artist’s career, and the kind of subject matter that became appropriate for that moment. Further archival research into the art market in Paris, as well as the artist’s letters and diaries, would help to reveal more about the life of an artist in exile.