ZinaIda SerebryakOva was born in the NeskUchnoye estate, which was located in the modern KhArkiv region. This is the place where all of her family members are depicted going about their everyday business in ‘On the terrace in Kharkov.’ Though demonstrating an everyday scene, the painting has a touch of classicism to it. The painting is of amazing artistic integrity, it communicates the cozy home atmosphere in which the artist and her children grew up before the revolution in Russia.

However, the peaceful mood of the painting hardly corresponded to what was going on in the artist’s life. Serebriakova painted it at a very difficult moment in life. Having grown up in an idyllic atmosphere of the Benois-Lanceray family artistic estate, Zinaida had to face grief and hardships in the post-revolutionary years. Her family had to suffer the terrible loss of Boris, Serebriakova’s husband who died of typhus. The only detail to refer to this fact in the painting is the mourning dress of EkaterIna NikolAevna, Serebriakova’s mother. Apart from that nothing points to this fact.

Serebriakova paints her children with touching affection while remembering the recent tragedy. We cannot describe the inner world of the artwork as carefree, but it is fair and harmonious just like most of the artist’s paintings. According to her contemporaries, Serebriakova never complained about or was irritated by the hardships she had to face. This very outlook influenced her creative work as well.

‘On the terrace in Kharkov’ reflects impressionistic trends that the artist had reimagined and transformed to fit her individual style. Serebriakova had always loved pastose painting and bold coloristic solutions. Using bright colors she depicts the sunlight penetrating through the window into the room. At the same time, her painting style is marked by decorative monumentalism. We can see it in the way figures are portrayed, reminiscent of Poussin’s classical works.