Self-portrait with wife 1928

Pyotr Konchalovsky’s 'Self-portrait with wife' is made with oil paint, its surface built up from many shifting planes of earthy colors and light tones. I can imagine Pyotr, brush in hand, circling around his own image in the mirror, adding layer upon layer, wiping back, starting again, as he tries to capture the essence of himself and his wife. I wonder what it was like for him, painting this moment of intimacy. The strokes around the woman’s face are gentle, capturing her smiling likeness with soft colors, and the texture of her patterned garment. Meanwhile, Pyotr seems more focused on the solemnity of his own likeness. The way he builds up the surface with strokes, the planes of color all leaning this way and that, reminds me of Cézanne, though I can also see the influence of Russian icons in its frontal gaze. I see this painting as a conversation between artists, each one adding their own voice to the ongoing dialogue of art history. It's a reminder that painting is always evolving, changing, and becoming something new through the hands of each artist.