Tree in the Sky

Konchalovskii aimed to explore the intrinsic essence of nature with the help of color, texture, form and surface, creating imagery that simultaneously expressed the real and the metaphysical. Profoundly influenced by the French post-impressionists, Konchalovskii first encountered the work of Van Gogh in Paris in 1907, an encounter which in the artist's own words came to be decisive for his artistic development. 'I now knew', Konchalovskii later wrote, 'how an artist should relate to nature. Not copy or imitate her, but with persistence seek what is characteristic'. Konchalovskii indeed depicts a world bursting with sensual vitality and joie de vivre with a passion for the painterly medium that distinguishes him from many of his contemporaries.

Konchalovskii's later landscape painting was greatly influenced by the work of Cézanne. As the Russian Art historian John E. Bowlt commented, Konchalovskii '...superimposed a geometric order on the flux of nature, adjusting and distributing the shapes, masses and textures of objects so as to produce a preordained scheme and a formal arrangement.' (Exhibition catalogue; Unknown Konchalovskii, The Pushkin Fine Arts Museum, Moscow 2002, p. 46). This adds an analytical streak to his otherwise sensuous technique.