Sorrento. Grave of Sylvester Shchedrin. 1924

Pyotr Konchalovsky made this painting titled, Sorrento. Grave of Sylvester Shchedrin., but we don't know exactly when or with what materials. Konchalovsky is all about the brushstroke here, laying down thick slabs of pigment. The buildings almost feel like sculptures. The paint is so textural, so present. The eye leaps to that central building. The planes are fractured. It’s like he is trying to capture the light as much as the form. You can almost feel the heat radiating off the canvas. I find myself drawn to the figures in the bottom-left. The smudges of ochre and red suggest faces and clothes, but they're barely there. Konchalovsky reduces these details to their barest essentials. This approach echoes that of Cezanne, in that the brushstrokes come together to conjure the impression of the scene. This piece is, in a way, the art of seeing, experiencing, and feeling, distilled into pure form. It's not just about what we see, but how we see and feel. Like all great paintings, it leaves you with more questions than answers.