Deserter 1917

Ilya Repin made this oil on canvas painting, Deserter, which is now in the Vitebsk Museum of Fine Arts. The brushstrokes are so energetic, almost frenetic, aren't they? I can imagine Repin, in 1917, layering the paint, scraping back, trying to capture something about this individual. You know, the deserter's slightly averted gaze, the tentative smile—it's like Repin is trying to understand what led him to this point. It’s easy to read the tension in the surface. Look at the way he builds up the paint around the shoulders and coat with those thick strokes, like he's sculpting with color and texture. And then the face, with its almost luminous quality, seems to emerge from this darker, more turbulent ground. It’s like a play between light and shadow, inner turmoil and outward appearance. Repin was no doubt thinking about the big historical paintings he was known for, but this feels more intimate, more human. It reminds me of a conversation between painters, a shared language of looking and feeling, and a desire to reveal something about our common humanity.