Portraiture

Portraiture was important because it celebrated the integrity of everyday people. For the artist, portraiture presented the classic challenge of capturing the psychological complexity of the individual. Mosin's A Native of Yekaterinburg is an example of a traditional portrait in which the sitter is presented in a direct manner.

Another tendency in Soviet portraiture was to include symbolism or other objects that lent a narrative to the portrait. Rotnitski's Seryogo combines a traditional subject with a Party work-ethic in an Impressionist style.