Portrait of the Opera Singer Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin 1921

Boris Kustodiev created this portrait of Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin using watercolor and pencil. It’s a great example of mark-making as a way of thinking. The way Kustodiev uses the pencil here—the subtle hatching on Chaliapin’s coat—it’s not just about rendering form; it’s like he’s feeling his way through the image, letting the marks accumulate. The textures! You can almost feel the softness of the fur against the cool smoothness of the coat. And the color palette, so restrained, almost monochromatic, gives the piece a certain gravitas, a sense of quiet dignity. Look at the detail on the fur stole, how the light catches the tips of the hairs, and that small, intense dark splodge for the eye, peering out from under the fur hat. It anchors the whole composition. This reminds me of some of Manet’s portraits, the way he captured the essence of his subjects with such economy of means. Art is an ongoing conversation, right? It’s about looking, feeling, responding, and letting the process guide you.