When browsing through the selected painter and artists, I was particularly struck by Kustodiev and his story. Aside from overcoming the debilitating tuberculosis and remaining mentally optimistic, his paintings captivated me because of their busy nature and distinctness. Interestingly, Kustodiev painted both an artist\u2019s and a merchant\u2019s wife, but the divergence of expression for a seemingly identical subject was, for me, noteworthy. Firstly, I was struck by the difference in pallet of the two paintings. The artist\u2019s wife sits in a darker frame with some flora behind her. She is wearing a dark gown, but both the dress and the setting around her have some accents of lighter colors. There appears to be some smudging of paint, especially in the background, but more deliberate brush strokes are also visible in the linear parts of the illustration (the railings, dog\u2019s limbs, and table cover).<\/p>\n
The picture of the merchant\u2019s wife is very antithetical to the artist\u2019s. The setting is much more ornate: her dress is more sophisticated; the bowl and chalices being used are very elaborate; the food she is eating is clearly expensive, and the background is much more active. Additionally, she is not making eye contact with the viewer while the artist\u2019s wife was.<\/p>\n
The striking distinctions between the portraits of the wives must indicate how Kustodiev feels about the two classes. The artist\u2019s wife, and by extension the artist, is much more pensive and introspective. Despite the dog looking at her, she maintains visual contact with the viewer. She is lightly smirking, but the mundane around her elicit a sense of relaxation and thought in her. The merchant\u2019s wife, on the other hand, is looking off to the side. She is clearly much more captivated by what is going around her\u2014the delicious food, pretty background, and happy cat have her attention. Her demeanor and way of holding the item in her hand illustrate her bliss and almost carefreeness, juxtaposing the pensive and thoughtful artist\u2019s wife. I do not think he is criticizing either, but Kustodiev is definitely drawing a distinction. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When browsing through the selected painter and artists, I was particularly struck by Kustodiev and his story. Aside from overcoming the debilitating tuberculosis and remaining mentally optimistic, his paintings captivated me because of their busy nature and distinctness. Interestingly, Kustodiev painted both an artist\u2019s and a merchant\u2019s wife, but the divergence of expression for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1017,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unit-9-the-silver-age-and-revolution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1017"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}