Un Kurde de Bagdad 1931

Alexandre Jacovleff made this portrait, "Un Kurde de Bagdad," with something that looks like chalk or maybe pastel. It’s all about how he layers those marks to build up this guy's face and clothes. It's not about hiding the process, but showing it. I love how the colors are muted, almost like faded photographs, but then there's this pop of red outlining his jacket that just brings it to life. And look at his turban, you can almost feel the fabric because of the way Jacovleff uses all these tiny lines to suggest the folds and the texture. I keep coming back to the hands. They’re just sketched in, almost like an afterthought, but they add so much character. They remind me a bit of Matisse, actually, how he could do so much with so little. Ultimately, it's like Jacovleff is saying, "Here's what I saw, here's what I felt, and here's how I made it." It’s not perfect, it’s not trying to be, but it's real.