Still life with rabbit 1954

Pyotr Konchalovsky made this painting, *Still life with rabbit,* with oil on canvas. Look at how Konchalovsky’s brushstrokes, full of confident energy, animate the whole scene. It’s like he’s not just painting objects, but capturing a moment, a feeling, of vitality and maybe even the cycle of life. The materiality of this work is so present. The paint has this creamy, almost tactile quality, especially in the way he renders the rabbit's fur. You can almost feel the texture, the roughness. Then you have the stark contrast of the smooth glass of the bottle. It’s all so physical, so grounded in the here and now. I keep coming back to the way he’s handled the light. It's not just about illuminating the scene. It's like the light itself is a character. The way Konchalovsky orchestrates the composition reminds me a bit of Chardin, that everyday realness elevated through the act of painting. But Konchalovsky brings his own particular brand of expressive handling, opening up a space for the painting to breathe and shift with the viewer's gaze.