Last class, we dissected Zinaida Serebriakova’s self-portrait “At the Dressing Table”. We appreciated the incredible brushstrokes and her captivating gaze and the ornate detailing of her perfume bottles. After noting that her hair was in the process of being coiffed and her undergarments not even completely on, we determined that this piece was modern in its unpolished portrayal of Serebriakova. She is beautiful even before she brushed her hair and donned her dress. We discussed the clear deviation from the slew of pieces focused on the male gaze to this piece that focuses distinctly on the female gaze.

“Light Breathing” offers a similar expression of beauty: “To think how carefully some of her schoolmates did their hair, how meticulous they were about their persons, how they watched their every controlled movement! But she was afraid of nothing—neither inkstains on her fingers, nor a reddened face, nor tousled hair, nor a knee suddenly bared if she fell when running’ (124). Olya is also beautiful in her unpolished manner.  She is beautiful as she draws or writes (“inkstains”) and runs (“reddened face”) and neglects her hair (“tousled hair”) and adventures (“a knee suddenly bared”). Both Zinaida and Olya possess a natural, raw, dignified beauty. The glint in Zinaida’s eyes reflects the wildness we see in Olya’s behavior, as she is “naughty and quite unimpressed with the sermons preached to her by her grade supervisor”. The two women and their notable heads of hair shed light on the role of Russian women during this era—they are cultivating the female gaze.