Still Life. Pipe with smoke. 1929

Pyotr Konchalovsky made this small still life painting, ‘Pipe with smoke’, with oil on cardboard. You can almost smell the woody tobacco, can’t you? I can practically see him in my mind’s eye, the artist in a room thick with smoke and warm ochre light, squinting at his subject. I imagine he was interested in the way the smoke swirls and curls, an ephemeral form that shifts even as you try to capture it, and the rough, comforting weight of the pipe itself. There’s something very personal about the painting, like an intimate record of a moment. It reminds me of other artists who have used everyday objects to explore deeper themes, like Morandi with his bottles. These are just humble objects, but brought to life on the canvas, they become something more, they start to resonate with feeling. We see the history of painting re-emerge in a fresh guise. It’s all one big conversation, isn’t it?