In the garden c. 1923

Konstantin Korovin captured this scene of leisure with oil on canvas. The loose brushwork and bright palette places this work within the tradition of Russian Impressionism, a movement that sought to capture fleeting moments and subjective experience. Painted at a time of social change in Russia, Korovin's idyllic image seems to deliberately avoid any social commentary. The painting is less concerned with reflecting social realities and more interested in aesthetic experience. The model’s leisurely pose and fashionable attire suggests an upper-class lifestyle, seemingly untouched by the political unrest brewing in the country at the turn of the century. Yet, it can be argued that this focus on beauty and personal experience was itself a statement. By turning away from the strictures of social realism, Korovin and his contemporaries asserted the importance of individual vision. To understand this art, one must look at the institutions that supported it, the artistic debates of the time, and the social context in which it was created.