Portrait of O.I. Rybakova in childhood 1923

Zinaida Serebriakova made this portrait of O.I. Rybakova in childhood, using what looks like pastel on paper. The way the pastel sits on the surface gives the work a soft, almost dreamlike quality, like a memory fading at the edges. I'm drawn to the sketchy quality of the marks, especially in the background. You can see how the artist built up the form with layers of color, letting some of the paper show through. It’s this kind of transparency that makes the work so alive, like you can see the artist thinking and feeling her way through the process. The girl’s skin glows with a soft light that is picked up by the white of her dress, giving it a feeling of luminosity and depth. For me, this portrait evokes the work of Berthe Morisot, with its delicate touch and focus on capturing the fleeting beauty of everyday life. It reminds us that art is not just about perfect representation, but about capturing a feeling, an experience, a moment in time.