Pierrot and Harlequin (Cyrano Juggler Brothers)

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Location: The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg (Russia).

By the 1920s, Shevchenko’s “colour dynamos” gradually acquired more and more traditional properties, although he continued to use sharp avant-garde sensitivity to the texture of the painting. His passion for paintings by Cezanne refers to the same years. The pair plot story of the Cyrano brothers is very “Cezanne-like”: saturated colours and clear contours. The still life with bright oranges on a white “heavy” drapery is recognized at first sight – it is just a tracing paper from the work of Cezanne. The figures of the characters are incredibly expressive and uniquely realistic, but the shapes of still life objects are deliberately distorted.