Life in Neskuchny, located between Kursk and Kharkov, gave the artist a lot of material for creativity. Those whom she depicted were well known to her as she observed them year after year. Bleaching Cloth was supposed to be part of an epic series which included the painting Harvest and conceived Sheep Shearing. Serebryakova interprets a simple working process – cloth bleaching – as a ritual act. She shows the calm beauty of people and the world, which is furthered by the pictorial and linear rhythm of the painting, the majestic poses of the women and the low skyline determined by the composition. Thus, a special kind of silence is born that is more appropriate in a temple than in the field. Time has halted, stopped. This day will last forever, like the endless course of life. Heroines’ solemn majesty and calm contemplation were once discovered by A.G. Venetsianov, whom Serebryakova valued a lot. But the former preferred to romanticise his images, while Serebryakova chose neoclassicism: the picture turns into an epic narrative.
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow