This painting depicting a young woman is noteworthy primarily due to the artist’s skillful use of color and composition. The work is not signed but is similar in quality to that of Pyotr Yefimovich Zabolotsky, which is exhibited in the Yekaterinburg Art Museum. The difference between the “Girl with a Cigarette” from Syktyvkar and the painting from Yekaterinburg lies in the pattern of the skirt folds, as well as in the cut and fabric of the blouse. One can also spot such outstanding details as the girl’s gaze and the lighting effect enhanced by the lit match.
Pyotr Zabolotsky graduated from the Imperial Academy of Arts and later became its honorary member. His name quickly got wind among other artists. He worked extensively, taking commissions for portraits and genre scenes; the customers especially valued his images of young women holding lit splinters or candles. This technique was not new to art, having been used by Western European artists, close to Caravaggio and his followers, as early as the 17th century.
Vasily Tropinin, who influenced Zabolotsky’s work, also had a particular fondness for artificial lighting, which brought a whimsical play of chiaroscuro to his paintings. The effect of light coming from somewhere beyond the canvas allowed the artist to convey the changing, immaterial quality of space. Zabolotsky used this technique particularly often during his heyday in the 1830s, creating several romantic female portraits (“Girl Who Fell Asleep by Candlelight”, “Cook with a Candle”, and “Divination by Cards”). “Girl with a Cigarette”, created a bit later, is one such work.
The girl is definitely posing for the painting, radiating the charm of youth that rushes to become part of adult social life. The artist admires the relaxed grace of her natural posture and smooth gestures.
Pyotr Zabolotsky’s manner was influenced by the style of the famous Russian artist Alexey Venetsianov, known for his genre paintings. The young woman’s image in his work reflects the changes in Russian society during the second half of the 19th century. At that time, a “new type of womanhood” was embraced by women who wanted to get an education and pursue a career. Those “new women” were breaking new ground by taking traditionally male jobs such as translator, journalist, editor, and doctor, to name a few. This shift was brought about by the increasing social mobility of women at the time. Influenced by the women’s rights movement of the 1860s, students and housemaids took up smoking, much like the woman depicted in Zabolotsky’s painting.
