At lower right: Constantin Somov. 1930 Paris

Pictures of people relaxing in natural settings are an important Somov theme. In his later work, he returns to the compositional discoveries of earlier years: “toujours la même chose,” the artist said. But instead of “retrospective views” with deliberately interpreted landscape backgrounds, here he seeks to convey his immediate impressions of nature, although in a clearly stylized way: sharp contrasts of light and shadow give the background landscape special clarity; the human figures seem to resolve into porcelain statuettes.