1938
oil on canvas
211 х 233

The portrait was created by Konchalovsky during the time of the mass repressions and not long before the arrest and death of Vsevolod Meyerhold, the theatre director and reformer. With the objective of showing the conflict between the individual and the surrounding reality – at this time Meyerhold was already removed from his job – the artist has chosen a complex solution in his construction of the composition. The background, which is a carpet with multi-coloured ornamentation, provides a decorative, ornamental plane, while the figure is drawn in volume and held to a monochrome tonal range. The clash between flat plane and volume, the contrast in the spots of colour, the fractional forms of the ornamentation and the figure of the model – all of this creates a special emotional tension which reveals the content of the image. This is how Vsevolod Ivanov described the painting: “A man is reclining on a sofa. It would seem that he is resting. The handsome carpet and calm dog seem to support this view. But his creative thought does not cease for a moment. It is as tense and disturbed as the design of the carpet…”