Sketch of still life with bread 1911

Pyotr Konchalovsky made this sketch of still life with bread with an economy of means and a wonderful simplicity. It’s a watercolor, so the paint is thin, translucent in places, pooling in others. Look at the cloth beneath the bread – the white of the paper shines through the blue, creating lighter tones. And that blue itself is so juicy, so full of life. There’s a looseness, a speed of execution. See how he renders the bread, each loaf or roll defined with just a few strokes of the brush. There are no hard edges, no meticulous details, just the essence of bread-ness, it feels provisional. It reminds me a little of Matisse, in the way that it celebrates the everyday, the simple pleasures of life. Both artists share a love of color, a joy in the act of painting. But where Matisse is all about elegance and sophistication, Konchalovsky is more rough-and-ready, more down-to-earth, and I really love that.