Portrait of the physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov

Ilya Repin painted this portrait of Ivan Pavlov using oil on canvas. The muted palette and visible brushstrokes give us a glimpse into Repin's process. Look at how Repin builds up the face with layers of short, choppy strokes. There is a real tension between the almost sculptural quality of the head and beard, and the relative flatness of the figure's shirt, built up through horizontal strokes of white mixed with blues and greens. The hands are painted with browns and reds, creating a startling contrast with the white shirt. Notice how the brushstrokes around the edges of the figure become looser, almost dissolving into the background. This gives the portrait an unfinished, open-ended quality. Repin's contemporary, the American painter Thomas Eakins, comes to mind. Both artists understood that a painting is not just a likeness, but also a record of the act of seeing and making.