The Boating Party is motivated by state-instigated propaganda to boost a failing economy and patriotic spirits. Here, Gerasimov extolls Soviet agricultural abundance during a period when it was failing.
The robust women enjoy a picnic in a rowboat chock-a-block with summer produce on their way to a picnic. It’s a soft-porn concoction of breasts and seasonal fruits, especially watermelons. They are buxom and have removed their tops so that their large breasts compete with the ample stores of foods filling the boat: watermelons, apples, other seasonal fruits. There is a concertina and something to drink.
Compare Gerasimov’s version of Soviet life before its dissolution with the satire of Vladimir Dubosarsky & Alexander Vinogradov. Harvest Celebration
(1995).
See Alexander Gerasimov. The Boating Party. Oil on canvas. 1925