Illustration for a poem "Walls of Cain" by Vyacheslav Ivanov 1906

In 1906, Ivan Bilibin brought us into the walled world of Vyacheslav Ivanov's poem through pen and ink. Look at these lines—dark, deliberate, decisive! I imagine Bilibin hunched over his drawing board, each stroke a careful consideration. Did he pause, I wonder, feeling the weight of Cain's burden as he rendered each stone? There's something about the graphic nature of the illustration that pulls you in, right? How the black ink pools in certain areas to describe the form of the rocks and walls. There are these two towers guarding the gate that loom like giants, making me feel the burden of this heavy boundary. I can see the walls of Cain more like the walls of the mind now, or the walls of a troubled conscience. In the end, Bilibin has left us an image that speaks of isolation but also of intense introspection. It’s a reminder that art, like life, is built one mark at a time.