A man in white jacket 1913

Ilya Repin made this painting, A man in white jacket, and the brushstrokes are so energetic, so alive, it's like you can see him thinking. The way he layers those greens and blues in the background, it's not just setting a scene, it's creating a mood. The texture of the paint itself is so present. It's not smoothed over, it's right there, thick in places, especially in the white jacket, which isn’t really white but made up of so many colours. Look at the signature in the lower right corner, it feels like a final flourish, a confident gesture. Repin reminds me of someone like Manet, in the way he captures a moment, an impression. But there’s also something so deeply Russian about his work, a kind of soulful intensity that’s hard to pin down. It’s like he's saying, "Here's a person, a moment, but there's so much more going on beneath the surface." And isn't that what art is all about?