Original artwork description:

Ⅳ. “The drowned woman”. The last breath was a long time ago and it seems already that it never happened, like she never breathed. Eternal drowning and fighting for life. Eternal drowning without a burial. When she takes the last breath, she freezes in relaxation. Life no longer seems so valuable (and does it seem so to anyone?) and finally she can stop fighting. She almost reached her eternal vacation, relaxed so much that almost reached enlightenment, only in the next world.

Preparatory sketch, made for the main painting - The River of the Dead. To avoid the photo effect in the painting, I collected material from live models. I could not allow such a large painting, which I painted for 3 years, to have a hint of a copied photo. Thus, a whole series of sketches with drowning souls was born. This is a large study of anatomy, complex angles and built-in soft light, a study that laid the foundation for my style for the years to come. This is a study of mythology, which changed all the themes of compositions and graduation works at the Academy of Arts for the next few years. This study, which is very dear to the Museum of the Academy of Arts and presents the main painting The River of the Dead in the largest national museums of many countries. In the last photo in the gallery you can see a fragment of The River of the Dead with a similar figure from this sketch. This canvas is a small price to pay for the opportunity to have a great story.

Materials used:

Масло

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