Artwork
Working Casket
Working Casket is an oil painting by the Art Brut artist Olga Rozanova. It dates from 1915 and is held in the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The composition presents these everyday objects in a compact, geometrically simplified arrangement characteristic of the Cubo‑Futurist approach.
Working Casket (1915) by Olga Rozanova is a still‑life oil painting that places a small casket alongside sewing implements, scissors, a length of thread, and a thimble. The composition presents these everyday objects in a compact, geometrically simplified arrangement characteristic of the Cubo‑Futurist approach. By juxtaposing a symbol of mortality with tools associated with domestic labor and the passage of time, the work invites contemplation of life’s fragility and the continuity of routine craft.
While the painting does not supply an explicit narrative, its selected items function as visual metaphors for the interplay between death and the persistent, tactile activities of daily life.
Technique & Style
Working Casket is an oil painting on canvas, exemplifying Olga Rozanova’s Cubo‑Futurist approach to still life. The artist applied oil paint to a stretched canvas support, creating a work measuring 58 cm high by 33 cm wide. The composition fragments everyday objects, a casket, scissors, thread and thimble, into intersecting geometric planes, conveying a sense of dynamism and modernity characteristic of the Cubo‑Futurist movement. The painting’s handling of color and form reflects the movement’s emphasis on simultaneous perspectives and rhythmic abstraction.
History & Provenance
Olga Rozanova created the oil painting Working Casket in 1915. Executed on canvas, the work depicts a still life arrangement featuring a casket alongside sewing implements such as scissors, thread, and a thimble. The piece is stylistically associated with the Cubo-Futurist movement.
Historically, the painting was included in the landmark "0,10" Exhibition. The work currently resides in the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery, where it is held as part of their permanent holdings.
Overview
Olga Rozanova’s 1915 oil work Working Casket presents a still‑life composition that gathers ordinary household items, a wooden casket, scissors, a thimble and a length of thread, suspended against a multicolored, textured backdrop. The painting resides in the Tretyakov Gallery’s collection and exemplifies the artist’s engagement with early twentieth‑century Russian avant‑garde currents.
Artist & collection
Artist
Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova (also spelled Rosanova, Russian: Ольга Владимировна Розанова) (22 June 1886 – 7 November 1918, Moscow) was a Russian avant-garde artist painting in the styles of Suprematism, Neo-Primitivism, and Cubo-Futurism.
