Portrait of architect Toros Toramanian 1934

Martiros Sarian painted this portrait of architect Toros Toramanian in 1934 with bold strokes of ochre, grey, and sienna. I can almost feel Sarian's hand moving across the canvas, wrestling with the essence of his sitter! And the way he's built up the surface, thick in places, thin in others – it's like he's sculpting with paint. I imagine Sarian stepping back, squinting, adding a touch of red to the lips, a dab of blue to the jacket. The dark outline of the eyebrow is particularly potent. It feels like such a deliberate act of mark-making, communicating so much with just one stroke. There is a clear relationship to the work of other early modern painters, like Cezanne. It's like the artist is joining a conversation that's been going on for centuries.