Hercules and Omphale 1928

Pyotr Konchalovsky made Hercules and Omphale using oils to tackle a narrative subject with a real hands-on approach to painting. The earthy palette is the first thing that grabs you, but the way the colours are thrown down, a kind of physical wrestling with the medium, that’s what stays with you. Look at the way the forms are built up from small, discrete marks, little dabs of colour, especially around the drapery in the top left corner. The green pigment almost has the consistency of mud, it feels like Konchalovsky is trying to build a world right there on the canvas. The creamy, fleshy tones of the figures also show how the artist is handling and manipulating the paint, making it as much the subject as the mythical scene itself. This piece puts me in mind of some of the raw, Expressionist canvases of someone like Kirchner, but with an added layer of narrative and humour. Art is always a kind of conversation, and this painting is a good example of how artists can take old stories and make them new again.