Gatchina. Interior 1922

Zinaida Serebriakova sketched "Gatchina. Interior," using pastel on paper to capture a hushed room, a moment suspended. I wonder about her choices, the intimacy of pastel, the powdery touch. Did she want to soften the edges of aristocracy, to hint at the quiet lives lived within those walls? The blues! A whole chorus line of blue velvet chairs and a fainting couch, all singing the blues, while the eye is drawn through the doorway, following the receding space. I think about Bonnard and Vuillard, those domestic interiors, always a little melancholic, a little claustrophobic, yet beautiful. Serebriakova is doing something similar here, trapping light and shadow, making a stage set for unseen dramas. It’s like she’s saying, “Look, even grandeur is just a collection of dusty corners and forgotten moments.” Painters, we're all just borrowing from each other, remixing the same old feelings with new colors.