Natalia Goncharova. 1881 - 1962. Russia .

Sheep-shearing . 1900s

Oil on Canvas . 118 * 102 cm.

The work of Natalia Goncharova is a complex, but vivid and interesting phenomenon in the Russian art of the early 2Oth century. Her painting "Sheep-shearing" is rich and decorative in its colours and somewhat exaggerated in its draughtsmanship. In Goncharova's work the concrete episode of the shearing loses its everyday prosaism and the scene takes on a symbolic character. The tension generated by the cold, gloomy colour scheme and stylized drawing imbue the landscape with some kind of disturbing mystery.