Phantoms

Borisov-Musatov conceived Phantoms after staying at the Zubrilovka estate. He began work in autumn 1902; the painting is dated 1903. His sister and fiancée had already departed. The emptying estate supplied material for his reflection on time and memory.

A woman in a long pale dress stands near the centre. Her silhouette is clearer than her facial features, and her broad skirt connects with horizontal bands of ground. The title invites us to see an apparition; subdued colour and generalized forms support that reading.

Another figure is partly cropped by the left edge. Her dress extends beyond the image, making the scene difficult to read as a closed group of sitters. The interruption suggests movement continuing outside the frame, although no precise route is established.

In the background stands a pale manor house with columns and a rounded central section. Its architecture remains recognizable, though the details are softened. The artist used a real place, then subjected it to the composition’s colour scheme. Building and figures share a similar pallor.

Dark trunks and foliage form a dense vertical group on the left. Beside them, the pale figures appear still less substantial. The colour difference between trees and house separates spatial planes without sharp outlines, preserving the soft surface of pastel and tempera.

A staircase leads from the palace toward the foreground. Its repeated steps offer the eye a route through the painting and connect the architecture with the women’s appearance. This arrangement invites a reading of the estate as a setting for memory, consistent with the museum’s interpretation.

The museum records that the first version followed direct observation more closely and that the artist abandoned it. The final painting shows observation transformed into a deliberately stylized image. In 1905, the Tretyakov Gallery’s council purchased Phantoms from the artist’s widow, Elena Borisova-Musatova.