Woman in a national costume 

Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky captured this “Woman in a National Costume” with oil paints on canvas. Look closely, and you’ll notice that the artist wasn’t only interested in painting her face. Much attention has been given to the materials of her clothing. Consider the layers of beads cascading down her neck, and the gold embroidery on her headdress. These are all painstaking processes. In this painting, we see an intersection of different forms of labor. Not only is there the artist’s own skilled work with the brush, but also the labor of those who made the woman’s garments. Perhaps the artist wanted us to consider the value of these different forms of creativity. Makovsky prompts us to think about the value of labor, and the way that materials and making shape our understanding of art and culture.