Novgorod. Square ​​of St. Sophia Cathedral. 1928

Pyotr Konchalovsky painted this image of the Square of St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod with oils. Look closely, and you’ll see that Konchalovsky is playing with the architecture and the landscape. It’s not quite realism, but it’s more than just a feeling. The brushwork is broad and confident, with strokes that are both descriptive and expressive. The way the light hits the domes, for example, isn’t just about rendering form, it’s about capturing a certain atmosphere. I love how Konchalovsky uses color to create depth. The blues and greens of the sky and trees contrast with the warm yellows and whites of the cathedral. Notice the tree on the left, the trunk is almost like another building, painted with the same attention to volume. The way the shadows play across the walls, the small figures in the foreground. It’s all about building up layers of paint and meaning. Konchalovsky reminds me of Cezanne, in the way he flattens and abstracts forms, but with a distinctly Russian sensibility. It’s a reminder that painting is always a conversation, an ongoing dialogue between artists and ideas.