Fyodor Dostoevsky
"Fyodor Dostoevsky", acrylic on cardboard, 2021, Bishop Maxim
The portrait crystallizes a multifaceted but blessed gaze of Dostoevsky. By looking at the painting one realizes that this man has lived a storm and his eyes have a sweetness that says: Glory to God, we are saved! We have escaped from nothingness! To right and left, two huge boulders jut forth, the prominent cheekbones typical of his race; a sparse moustache and a straggling beard veil the sad-looking mouth and delicate chin. All is dark and preeminently earthly in this unbeautiful face, so flat and colorless is it, so lacking in brightness: a piece of the Russian steppe cast high and dry upon the stones. The radiance of the deep-set eyes, gleaming from within their sockets, is directed inward.