Still Life. Apples at the roundtable. 1934

Pyotr Konchalovsky made this still life with oil paint, calling it, "Apples at the roundtable.” It’s got a real sense of immediacy, doesn’t it? Like he just grabbed some paint and went for it, letting the colors bump up against each other, a kind of dance between what he sees and what the paint wants to do. The paint itself is pretty thick, especially in those apples. You can almost feel the weight of them, sitting there on the leaves. And the leaves, they're not just green, are they? There’s blues and grays mixed in, making them feel almost like fabric, a kind of soft landing for the fruit. Look at how the light hits the apples, how he uses these little dabs of pink and red to make them glow. It's not just about showing us apples; it's about capturing a moment, a feeling. It reminds me a bit of Cezanne, that same love of everyday objects, but with a bit more looseness, a willingness to let the paint be itself. It’s like he’s saying, "Here are some apples, but here’s also the joy of painting them."