1940
oil on canvas
80 õ 75
Here the artist has depicted Vera Ignatievna Mukhina (1889–1953), Soviet sculptor, author of many well-known works including the famous sculptural ensemble entitled Worker and Collective-Farm Girl (Kolkhoznitsa) (1935–1937) which was atop the Soviet Pavilion at the World’s Fair in Paris in 1937.
Nesterov wanted to present Mukhina not only as an “interesting, intelligent Russian person having ‘her own face’” but also as an outstanding sculptor. The artist has portrayed her while she was working on a statue of Borei, the god of the North wind, made as a monument to the Cheluskin Expedition.
In the portrait he has successfully combined two principles: the intellectual and the “active-creative.” In the strong-willed appearance of the woman sculptor, who seems to enter into a single combat with the material, we see a reflection of the profound movement of creative thinking.
The chosen perspective, viewing from below, carries with it an element of the monumental. The content of the image is revealed by the dynamic construction built along the diagonal and the contrasts of black and white tones.
