“The Woman with a White Dog”

According to power and prestige, the artwork by Nicholas Vasilief demonstrates how physical environments can spatially segregate women's positions in society. In every community, the ideas of masculine hegemony are ingrained. In the world of the arts, this patriarchal worldview is still prevalent. These actual locations demonstrate a knowledge barrier between people of higher and lower class. In this instance, a painting of a woman holding a dog can be used to demonstrate high social standing. The power struggle between masculinity and femininity is enacted in gendered space through actions and attitudes. A patriarchal framing of art spaces creates an aura of invincibility to the masculine power, which ultimately affects the gender roles, social order, and hierarchical progression.

Background

The bibliographic information of Nicolas Vasilief denotes a talented storyteller and painter. He always converted his verbal images into colored and detailed paintings. His skills of painting were very efficient as they helped to deliver more details of an event than the initial story. Vasilief was born in Russia but later migrated to the United States at the age of thirty-six years (Spain 139). He attended Moscow College of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, where he graduated with a Gold Medal in the year 1914. He also returned to the college as a lecturer after a service in the military. Vasilief made several trips to Constantinople between 1920 and 1922, which was an artistic revolution period of Moscow. This contact probably was very significant to his successful career in Arts as it provided him with a wider exposure.

Vasilief maintained a close affiliation with other professional artists of his age. For instance, he was a member of the avant-garde artistic circles. This membership saw the inclusion of his work in the Fifth State Exhibition held in Moscow Museum of Fine Arts in 1918-1919. Throughout his career, he represented Russian painting style, but in some instances, he mixed with French Cubism styles. In particular, his oil paintings played a significant role in promoting the Russian style of art during the second decade of the twentieth-century. Many writers and artists also encouraged the revolutionary Russian artwork by Vasilief. His work remains significant as it managed to favorably compete with European art, which had already developed long before the Russian art.

Vasilief’s contribution to art is not clear for the period after 1923. However, his painting “Woman with a white dog” remains a valid example to depict the maturity of his artwork. His artwork implies that he attempted to include some aspects of the modern art, which affirmed most of the social values of the 19th century. By the time he made the "Woman with white dog," Vasilief had already assimilated the principle of primitivizing in art. Personal satisfaction seems his most effective motivation tool in his career.

The painting: The Woman with a White Dog

The painting “Woman with a White Dog" depicts a woman sitting on a royal chair. She is wearing a red velvet gown that drops on her shoulders. On her head, she wears a mustard-yellow with tied with a ribbon. She wears some jewelry around her neck. The background of the painting has greenish and reddish coloring. This image of the woman occupies a significant space of the entire painting. The color of the royal chair is black with brown edges.

In the family, women role was predominantly

Women are expected to meet certain social determinants of beauty hence use of make-up by how they treat their bodies.

The religious demands women to be moral through wearing long dresses or covering their bodies.

A white dog sits on the lap of the old woman. The position and the outlook of the white dog reveal comfort. The colors integrated into the image are coherent. For instance, the red gown and the black seat match. The brown edges of the royal seat match with brown and greenish immediate backgrounds. The white color of the dog also rhymes with the orange color in the immediate background. Therefore, the complex mixture of colors appeals in this painting.

Ideology and Iconography

The painting reflects material, and class interests hypothesize. The postulate claims that in a capitalist model, women are more likely to transfer their labor incomes to their homes in industrial models. There is the possibility of royal or high-class status as depicted in the extensive makeup used by the woman. The indicators incorporate the exotic fur collar and the high-backed chair.

Formal Analysis

The painting has a simple frontal view with a reddish and greenish background. The woman in the painting is wearing a ceremonial dress. A closer observation of the art reveals artistic canvas contours which was a standard technique used by Russian artists. The art is unique because it represents a unique and complicated mixture of colors. This image demonstrates how Vasilief was keen in mixing colors to create an emotional impression from the painting. The technique was common in French. Moreover, the technique was an outstanding French post-impressionist like Matisse and Bonnard used this concept of a master colorist.

The painting, "Woman with a white dog," is more exceptional than other paintings made by Vasilief. His other paintings do not portray a higher level of artistic skills. This particular painting represents a lesser affinity with children's art due to levels of complications. Therefore, the picture represents a complex relation of Vasilief's view of the conventional world. These qualities place this artwork at a higher notch than the pictures of its era. As a matter of facts, it would be right to consider this picture as a representation of a complex, indirect and non-intellectual routine of representing genuine interest through an artistic experience.

Vasilief relied on real life experience to create the painting. This artwork reveals descriptive talents and higher levels of imaginations (Kramer). For instance, the mustard-yellow wig discloses a thinning hair sustained for the occasion. The gauze ribbon, the velvet mantle, once-fine dress and a gesture of jewels reveals ancient stylishness. Therefore, this artwork clearly explains the actual old code of dressing.

Interpretation

The painting by Vasilief is significant in communicating important aspects in the community. The artist made this sculptor at a time when feminism was not universal. Women held an inferior social position in society (Löw 119). The artistically mixed colors depict the woman in a dominant position and wearing expensively. The fact that this woman holds a dog represents an element of royalty. In both ancient and modern societies, dogs belong to pets common among the dominant social classes. Therefore, this image seems to communicate something important concerning the patriarchal dogma common in society at the time of painting. For instance, the image depicts a woman in a dominant position, something uncommon during the second decade of the twentieth century.

Gender space is a tool of activities and views that enact the power of struggle between masculinity and femininity (Löw 121). A patriarchal framing of art spaces creates an atmosphere of strength to the masculine power, which ultimately affects the gender roles, social order, and hierarchical progression. This particular painting seems to depict women as people struggling for a gendered space. The fact that the painting was a representation of real-life experience proves that women of his time were trying to find recognition in society.

Conclusion

The artwork illustrates deviation from normal societal expectations of gender roles and attributes. The deviations are from the fact that the painter shows the woman to be from a high social class rather than oppressed. The woman is likely from royal or high-class family. The artwork influences gender space through dictating the economic representation of women in society. The painting exceeds the impartiality of the canvas to signify an aesthetic beauty that represents gender transactions, cultural processes, and other human imaginations and creations. For instance, the woman with a white dog illustrates that women are capable of royal status in a society that oppressed women. Therefore, gendered space traverses the social expectations in the art illustrations.

Works Cited

McDonogh, Gary Wary. “Bars, Gender, and Virtue: Myth and Practice in Barcelona's “Barrio Chino”. Anthropological quarterly (1992): 19-33.

Kramer, Hilton. "Art: Vasilieff Discovered Again." The New York Times, 1977, http://www.nytimes.com/1977/07/15/archives/new-jersey-weekly-art-vasilieff-discovered-again.html?_r=1. Accessed 5 March 2017.

Löw, Martina. "The social construction of space and gender." European Journal of Women's Studies 13.2 (2006): 119-133.

Spain, Daphne. "Gendered spaces and women's status." Sociological Theory (1993): 137-151.