Portrait of Dmitry Petrovich Konchalovsky historian, brother of the artist 1909

Pyotr Konchalovsky painted this portrait of Dmitry Petrovich Konchalovsky, the artist’s brother, using oil on canvas. What strikes me about this piece is the directness of the mark-making, the immediacy of the artist's hand. Konchalovsky's process feels visible. The paint is applied in thick, almost sculptural strokes, particularly in the face and hands. The hands, wow, they're like raw meat, pulsating with life. There's this tension between the almost violent application of paint and the formal, composed nature of a portrait. Look at the eyes; they are piercing, electric blue, standing out against the pinks and reds of the skin. This work reminds me a bit of Soutine, in that shared willingness to distort and exaggerate for the sake of emotional intensity. This piece isn’t trying to be pretty. It's raw, honest, and full of feeling.