Portrait of Vladimir Aleksandrovich 1910

Ilya Repin made this portrait of Vladimir Aleksandrovich with oil on canvas; you can imagine how the painting came into being, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. Just look at the details of the face; all the little brushstrokes capture a likeness, as if he were actually in the room with you. As a painter, I think about all the choices Repin made here: the red of the chair, the glimmer of gold, the way his hand touches his face. There's a dialogue happening between the artist and the sitter, between the painting and the viewer. Repin’s paintings explore what it means to capture a person's essence on canvas. It speaks to a bigger conversation across painting history – we are all building on each other’s ideas, sharing the same questions through time.