Now that the OP has told us about the entire painting, we could have a lot of fun dissecting the meanings and differences between the expressions of the several participants.
I was the one who linked it in the other thread, so didn’t vote here, but I thought @Munch , @Cervaise and @The_Other_Waldo_Pepper all came the closest.
I linked it in this thread:
(As an aside, there were a fair number of people of Ukrainian descent in the little town I grew up in, on the Prairies. My overall impression was that they were good folk, give you the shirt off their backs, fun to be with; but don’t ever, ever, get in a fight with them. This painting fit that impression.)
I picked “cruelty” as the closest of the available choice, but I think some of the other posters described it better:
This thread led me to this article.
This plus suspicion were my answers.
Given that as of this moment 52 Dopers voted 93 times, and that no expression has more than 34% of the vote, I think the results prove that we just aren’t that good at reading facial expressions.
Or maybe that the artist failed if he tried to depict a particular emotion.
My vote was “Amusement” + “Other (Anticipation)”, but I think you’re closer to the mark with Cruelty/Other. There’s a lot of glee associated with cruelty, and I think that’s what’s going on.
Ha, I remembered this guy and this painting because I looked it up after hearing a great exchange on the show Letters Live.
It’s a brilliant piece. It’s Peter Capaldi and Matt Berry reading those two letters from the Sultan and the Cossacks.
Here’s the piece. I’m going to watch it again.
I think, based on the responses, that the artist nailed it.
I had clicked amusement and anger but the full sense is amusement at someone who is arrogantly thinking they have bested him and the thought of “oh your poor schmuck, you have no idea the lesson you are about to learn” and relishing the teaching of it.
Mischievous anticipation.
I voted “suspicious” and “pensive” and the above is more-or-less what I meant by picking those two words.
It’s complex: he has a furrowed brow, a wry smile and is giving side-eye. Plus the casual-ness of still having his pipe in his mouth.
In real life, you wouldn’t know for sure either, but your first instinct would be to glance in the direction he’s looking.
Greedy
And that context matters a lot.
I love that the artist used friends and acquaintances as models for the painting.
My feeling is he’s trying to suppress a smile by holding on to his pipe very firmly with his lips, but he’s not quite succeeding. That’s why I voted for both amusement and cruelty. He wants to smile, but he doesn’t want to give away that he’s about to trounce you.
That’s really it, I think. If he was involved in wording the Reply, then he’s more than likely imagining just how much those words will piss off the Sultan with a sort of amusement.