Merchant's Wife with Purchases 1920

Boris Kustodiev painted this scene of a Merchant's Wife, maybe sometime in the early 20th century, using oils and a heck of a lot of imagination. Just look at that pink dress against the vibrant green of the parasol! I wonder if Kustodiev was thinking about the colour combinations themselves. Sometimes, you know, you just want to throw colours together and see what happens. I find myself doing that when I'm trying to paint, just pushing the paint around to see what it does. What I love about this painting is the way he wasn't afraid to be bold, the kind of confidence you need to make something fresh. And I bet he was looking at the work of other artists too, thinking about what they did and how he could do something different. Artists are always in conversation with each other that way. It’s an ongoing exchange, and you can feel it in the way he's playing with the form, and the colours, letting the painting be itself.