Portrait of Feodor Chaliapin 1905

Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin made this portrait of Feodor Chaliapin with what looks like confident, loaded brushstrokes, where colours aren't blended so much as placed next to one another. See how the material quality of the paint itself creates a kind of surface tension? The strokes around his face are almost sculptural, catching the light and giving him a real presence. And then, look at the casual dabs of color that make up the background – greens and pinks hinting at a garden just beyond the window. It’s a real balancing act between specificity and suggestion. The surface has this amazing quality of being both there and not there. I see echoes of artists like Manet in this work, in the way Korovin embraces a kind of painterly shorthand. It reminds me that art is as much about what you leave out as what you put in. It’s never really about capturing a definitive truth but about an ongoing conversation.