Portrait of the son 1919

Pyotr Konchalovsky made this painting, ‘Portrait of the son’, with oil on canvas. There's an urgency to the application of paint here, a real sense of the artist working in the moment. The colours are quite saturated, the blues, reds and greens all fighting for attention. The paint is applied in short, thick strokes, creating a textured surface that feels almost sculptural. Look at the way the pink of the child's face contrasts with the blue of his suit, or the way the red of the flowers pops against the orange background. It’s like the artist is trying to capture not just what he sees, but how he feels. Look at the folds in the pink tablecloth. They're rendered with such bold, confident strokes. You can almost feel the weight and texture of the fabric, as though Konchalovsky wants to capture the whole sensory experience. Konchalovsky’s work shares a similar spirit with that of the Fauvist painters like Matisse, who sought to liberate colour from its descriptive function. It's about creating a new kind of visual language, where colour and form are free to express emotion. It’s less about telling you what to think, more about inviting you to feel something.