A Flower in a Pot and Strawberries - Ilya Mashkov

A 1938 still life by Ilya Mashkov featuring a potted gloxinia and a bowl of strawberries, rendered with textured brushwork and warm, natural tones.

Ilya Mashkov, a founding member of the Jack of Diamonds group, produced this still life in 1938. The composition features a potted gloxinia plant with deep pink blooms, positioned beside a shallow dish filled with ripe strawberries. A small cluster of additional berries rests on the surface nearby, creating a balanced arrangement of organic forms. Mashkov employs a tactile approach to paint application. The leaves of the plant display a textured, almost impasto quality, while the strawberries are rendered with small, deliberate dabs of colour that suggest their seeded surfaces. The background remains neutral and dark, which allows the saturated pinks of the flowers and the warm reds of the fruit to occupy the visual foreground. This work reflects the artist's shift from his earlier, more radical avant-garde experiments toward the more representational style that characterised his later career. The lighting is soft and directional, casting subtle shadows that define the volume of the ceramic pot and the rounded shapes of the fruit. Mashkov avoids excessive detail in the background, choosing instead to focus the viewer's attention on the interplay between the botanical subject and the harvested produce. The painting demonstrates his ability to elevate everyday objects through a disciplined observation of colour and form. It is a characteristic example of his mature period, where he combined traditional still life subjects with a robust, painterly technique that prioritised the physical presence of the objects depicted.