Persian woman 1910

Martiros Sarian painted this portrait of a Persian woman in 1910, and it feels like he's finding her, discovering her, one brushstroke at a time. Look at the way Sarian lays down the paint, thick and deliberate, especially in the white of her veil, which is not really white at all, more of a grey. The way the veil is draped, folded, and creased by means of carefully-placed brushstrokes. It gives the painting a kind of geometric, stylized quality. But then, there's the woman's face. The flesh is opaque but flat, a mask almost. It's as though Sarian is using blocks of colour to build her features. Notice that thin red line that defines the nose, almost as though it was added as an afterthought. Sarian was definitely looking at the work of Gauguin, and maybe even a little bit at Matisse. But in this painting, Sarian is doing something all his own, wrestling with representation, trying to get at something deeper.