Portrait of Maximilian Voloshin 1924

Boris Kustodiev created this ‘Portrait of Maximilian Voloshin’ with oils on canvas, though we don’t know exactly when. Look at the way the brushstrokes build up the image, especially the beard and hair, there’s such movement in these lighter marks. It’s like he’s trying to capture not just a likeness, but the energy of the guy. There’s a tension between realism and something almost dreamlike in this piece. The textures of the clothing and the face are so carefully rendered, but then you have these almost cartoonish clouds in the background. And that book, slightly out of focus, is a perfect little abstract painting in itself. I wonder, is this meant to be the real guy, or an idea of him? It reminds me of some of Alexej von Jawlensky’s portraits, in how they balance inner life with outward appearance. Both artists use color and form to suggest something beyond the surface, that art is more than a document, it's a conversation.