Victor Borisov-Musatov (1870–1905) headed an association going by the poetic name of the Blue Rose. His light-toned and lyrical works feature a departure from reality into the world of reverie and day-dreams. His works generally lack a developed subject. The master’s elegiac art is permeated with sorrowful reflections and notes of tranquillity.
In Self-Portrait with Sister (1898), his sister is like the ghostly resident of an old, historical estate. The composition seems to have frozen in time, like a frame from a film reel, with the figures on the point of slipping away into the space beyond the clouds.
