Hopak 1927

Ilya Repin made this painting, Hopak, with oil on canvas. Just look at those colours! It’s so wild and alive, like watching a dance unfold in a dream. The paint is thick, juicy even. Repin’s not trying to hide anything, you can see all the strokes. Look closer, around the figure leaping in the top left. Notice how the blues and whites kind of vibrate together. It gives the sky a sense of movement, like energy crackling in the air. I love the way the figures kind of dissolve into the background. The whole painting feels like a snapshot of pure energy, a moment of joy caught in time. It reminds me a bit of some of Delacroix’s more chaotic scenes, like art is just a way of bottling up emotion. It is about letting go, and just letting the paint do its thing.