Port of Siena 1912

Pyotr Konchalovsky’s ‘Port of Siena’ is an oil painting in which blocks of ochre, green, and blue define the architectural forms and landscape. You can see where the brushstrokes build up the surface, creating a relief of color and texture; I wonder if he was standing en plein air, batting away the midges, squinting in the sun… The artist must have stood in one spot for a significant amount of time, observing how the light shaped the town, abstracting it into geometric forms. The painting has a slightly naive quality but there's sophistication in its orchestration of tones. Looking at it, I can see the conversation Konchalovsky was having with the Post-Impressionists, like Cézanne. It feels like one painter is teaching another how to see and rebuild the world with paint, stroke by stroke. They show us that painting isn't just about representation but is an embodied expression of perception itself.