Anna Akhmatova and Alexander Block

A woman in a red dress with a fur-trimmed collar stands in profile at the edge of an arched mirror, reaching toward a small table scattered with flowers and gloves. Within the mirror's frame, a grey-haired man in dark clothing and a woman in a dark dress with beads stand close together, an orange sunset glowing through a window behind them.

Rich reds, deep violets and blackish browns surround a sudden burst of orange and yellow in the window, giving the scene a theatrical, stage-lit intensity. Faces are painted pale and mask-like against dark grounds, with flattened, decorative shapes and firm outlines, lending the encounter a tense, dramatic charge.