The artists who were members of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions - "Wanderers" - left a bright mark on Russian painting in the last third of the 19th century. This is a very Russian phenomenon in the history of art, because its main feature was the inextricable mutual influence of the artistic and social life of the country.

Vladimir Egorovich Makovsky joined the ranks of the Itinerants in 1972, two years after its formation, and was one of its most active participants. Makovsky's paintings enjoyed great attention throughout the heyday of this artistic movement.

Biography

He was one of the three sons of Yegor Ivanovich Makovsky, an outstanding Moscow art figure, collector, one of the founders of the famous Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Both brothers - Konstantin and Nikolai - as well as Alexander's sister became artists, and the other sister, Maria, a singer. In childhood, one of Vladimir's teachers was the famous Vasily Tropinin.

The very first paintings by Makovsky, starting with the genre scene "Boy Selling Kvass" (1861), written at the age of 15, showed his great abilities both in observing the events of his life and in transferring them to the canvas. In 1861 he entered MUZhVZ - a school, one of the founders of which was his father. He graduated with the award for the painting "Literary Reading" (1865).

Many of Makovsky's paintings became stages in his creative and professional development. For the canvas "Peasant Boys Guarding Horses" (1869), he received the title of "Class Artist of the First Degree", and for "Lovers of Nightingales" (1973) was promoted to Academician of Painting.

Pedagogical activity took a lot of time in the life of the master. For 12 years he taught at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture - from 1882 to 1894, and for the next 24 years - at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, becoming in 1895 the rector of the Higher Art School at the Academy of Arts.

The famous artist died in February 1920 in Petrograd.

The Grandma Game (1870)

The artist married early, and in 1869 his first son was born, who later also became an artist - Alexander Makovsky. Vladimir Yegorovich, whose paintings already had a distinct genre, has been paying a lot of attention to the children's theme since that time. Among such canvases of his, the picture stands out, which became the first one purchased by the famous collector Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov. This became for Makovsky a symbol of his final recognition as a painter.

Peasant children play the game that is most accessible to them. It uses grandmothers - small bones from the skeleton of domestic animals - a cow or a pig. This is a competition in accuracy: those bones, which were hit with a special cue ball (a head weighted with lead), become the prey of the player.

... Now the main thing for them is the game, to which they give themselves with all their passion. One, sitting, intently counts the prey, others are attentively awaiting the next throw. Makovsky, whose paintings are distinguished by meticulousness in everyday details, is also accurate in psychological nuances. All players have their own temperament, their own character. The common thing is soft humor and optimism, ineradicable even by the poverty of clothing and the dilapidation of the surrounding buildings.

Makovsky's early paintings are distinguished by excessive elaboration of details, sometimes interfering with a holistic perception. In the future, the artist's brush acquires greater freedom, and the palette will become more integral, which will allow avoiding a certain variegation inherent, in particular, in the picture we have examined.

Nightingale Lovers (1873)

This canvas represented Russian painting at the World Exhibition in Vienna, where it received a lot of attention from the audience.

Outside the window, a nightingale trill was heard, and the three peasants listened, interrupting their simple feast. One, standing, froze, looking out the window, trying to spy out a little birdie. The second, who has obviously drunk more than his friends, counts out the overflows of a nightingale song with waves of his palm. The third, the most respectable, listens, pensively tweaking his beard. Everything here is full of life and sound: the light from the window, the poses and gestures of the characters, a pot-bellied hot samovar, a simple but "tasty" still life.

There is a well-known review of this picture by the great Dostoevsky, who highly appreciated the goodness and attention to the common man emanating from the picture, which had not only a Russian, but also a universal scale.

"The Condemned" (1879)

Gradually, the humor and ironic attitude to the characters inherent in early paintings disappear in the artist's plots. The canvases acquire drama and ambiguity. These are several versions of the picture depicting the commoners who have embarked on the path of the revolutionary struggle, and the attitude towards such figures of representatives of different strata of the Russian people.

The armed convoy takes the young man out of the courthouse. At the exit, his relatives await him, including his mother, father, a young girl and an elderly man. Apparently, the main character comes from peasants or urban poor. His fiancée and her father belong to the more affluent class. The artist does not show obvious benevolence towards the convicted person, no sympathy for him and those around him is visible. He brought his loved ones one suffering - the mother folded her hands pleadingly, exhorting her son, the father sobbed inconsolably.

And the revolutionary himself does not look like an adamant hero-sufferer for the people. In his gaze - lost and lack of conviction in his righteousness. Makovsky, whose paintings are an accurate reflection of the mood prevailing in society, shows a change in attitude towards the methods of fighting the existing system, which were resorted to by radical parties and movements like Narodnaya Volya.

Date (1883)

Children are a topic on which Makovsky often worked. Vladimir Egorovich, whose paintings at first are only a reflection of childish spontaneity, admiration for the beginning of a new life, later speaks of different, often dramatic aspects of childhood in Russia at that time.

In poor families, it was customary to give children "to people". The child often became a powerless servant or apprentice, loaded with backbreaking work. Receiving from the owner only miserable food and unsettled shelter, children ceased to be a burden for the family, losing family comfort and growing up early. This path was especially common and customary for peasant families who gave the boy to serve in the city.

It is about such a child's fate that Makovsky tells. can take many pages, although there are only two characters on the canvas. The peasant woman has come a long way with a small bundle and a stick in her hands. She brought her son a roll to please her child. The woman looks with pity at the barefoot boy dressed in a dirty apron - apparently, he works in some workshop and got a few minutes of free time to meet with his mother.

The painter's manner of painting has also changed - there are no detailed and carefully written out details that distract attention and crush the image. The gloomy coloring serves not to express the joy of a short date, but to reflect the heavy mood of a lost childhood.

"On the Boulevard" (1886)

Makovsky often said that the artist has only a few minutes at his disposal, during which it is necessary to have time to tell what a writer can take many pages. In the 1880s, the master achieved the highest skill in creating such novel paintings. One of such peaks in terms of painting skill and content is the painting "On the Boulevard". During this period, V. E. Makovsky's paintings contain only two characters, but they are also enough for a deep analysis of social problems of a huge scale.

Before us is a small story about a dramatic break in the life of a young family. It seems that they come from the village, where they were preparing to live, like their parents, in the usual labors and joys of the peasant way of life. But my husband was drawn to the city, to work, to a new, "beautiful" and interesting life. And after some time, the wife came to visit her husband. Now they are strangers. He managed to be imbued with the urban spirit - he carefully monitors his appearance, in his hands a small accordion - it is clear that he likes most of all in city life.

The girl is still quite young, but she already understands that she can wait in the future, where she sees complete hopelessness. This painting by Vladimir Makovsky breathes longing, it is a kind of reflection of the private drama of two little people, and demonstrates the scale of the national problem of destroying the habitual way of life, which has been taking shape for centuries, and now is being destroyed as industrial centers develop.

Heritage

Vladimir Yegorovich was distinguished by great diligence and creative fertility. The result of his many years of work has become a genuine encyclopedia of the most typical phenomena of Russian reality at the turn of two centuries. He turned to themes of various scales - from everyday scenes to mass political actions - and embodied them with genuine artistic skill.

Historians of Russian art note that by the end of his life V. E. Makovsky became a supporter of more conservative views on the development of painting, negatively regarding the search for new themes and means of expression. But the scale of this figure in Russian fine art does not become smaller because of this.

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Author - TimOlya. This is a quote from this post

Favorite Russian artists Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky

Favorite Russian artists

Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky

"I did not bury my God-given talent in the ground, but I also did not use it to the extent that I could. I loved life too much, and this prevented me from completely surrendering to art. "

K.E. Makovsky

Self-portrait. 1860

The future artist, Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky, was born on June 20 (July 2), 1839. His father, Yegor Ivanovich, was a famous art figure in Moscow, one of the founders of the Natural class. The creative atmosphere surrounded the future artist and his brother from childhood. Famous painters and teachers of the school constantly visited my father's house. It is not surprising that all the children of Yegor Ivanovich: daughter Alexander, sons Konstantin, Nikolai and Vladimir, brought up in the spirit of love for art, under the influence of their father, an erudite and enthusiast, became artists. “What came out of me, I consider myself not to the academy, not to the professors, but exclusively to my father,” K. Makovsky wrote in his declining years.

Photo of the famous Russian artist Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky and his wife (1839 - 1915)

In 1861, Vladimir decides to start his studies at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture. Konstantin Makovsky studied very successfully, receiving numerous awards and prizes. His teachers, E.S. Sorokin and K.S. Zaryanko, instilled in him serious skills in drawing, the ability to accurately convey the materiality of objects. In 1866, Makovsky graduated from college and was awarded a large silver medal for the painting "Literary Reading". Continuing his education at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, Makovsky in 1869 received a gold medal and the title of artist of the first degree for the painting "Peasant boys guarding horses at night", which echoes in the plot with Turgenev's story "Bezhin Meadow". A kind of continuation of the theme can be considered the painting "The Game of Grandma" (1870). The artist subtly noticed the characteristic features of his little heroes, he undoubtedly succeeded in the Russian rural landscape, but, undoubtedly, one of the best paintings in Makovsky's early work can rightfully be considered "Folk festivities during Shrovetide on Admiralty Square in St. Petersburg" - a true gallery colorful types of urban estates. For this work, Makovsky was awarded the title of professor of the Academy of Arts, where radical reforms took place at that time, and everyday painting from persecuted turned into highly encouraged.

Herringwoman. 1867

Little organ grinders. 1868

Festivities during Shrovetide on the Admiralty Square in St. Petersburg. 1869

In 1863, together with thirteen other graduates of the Academy - applicants for the big gold medal, K. Makovsky refused to paint a picture on the proposed plot from Scandinavian mythology and left the Academy without ever completing his diploma program. However, in the same year he became an active member of the famous St. Petersburg Artel of Artists, headed by Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy.

In 1872-1873, the artist painted the picture "Nightingale Lovers", for which he was awarded the 1st prize of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and was awarded the title of academician.

Boyar wedding feast in the 17th century. 1883

Developing his own graceful and effective style, K. Makovsky began to gradually move away from the collective forms of artistic life, turning into a "maestro" with a certain range of favorite themes, genres and painting techniques. Even in his early years, the artist painted portraits to order, and soon turned into a fashionable portrait painter. Portraits of his work, especially for women and children ("Portrait of S.L. Stroganova", 1864, State Tretyakov Gallery; "Portrait of the Artist's Wife", 1881, State Russian Museum; "Family Portrait", 1882, State Russian Museum; "Portrait of M.E. Orlova-Davydova ", Tretyakov Gallery). Transparent mobile texture, colorfulness and attention to beautiful surroundings became the main reasons for the unprecedented success of Makovsky's painting.

Portrait of Empress Maria Feodorovna, wife of Alexander III

Portrait of Alexander II on his deathbed. 1881

The artist himself, slightly ironically, recalled this side of his work: "The best beauties vied with each other posed for me ... I earned huge money, lived with regal luxury and managed to write a myriad of paintings, decorative panels, portraits, sketches and watercolors." But finally that peculiar phenomenon, which can be called "the phenomenon of Konstantin Makovsky", was formed only in the 80s, when the artist moved away from the Itinerants and began to organize personal exhibitions of his works. In 1883, he thus showed the painting "Boyar's Wedding Feast in the 17th Century", which was soon bought to America. This work is rather interesting from an ethnographic point of view: the artist painstakingly draws out the costumes of the characters, accessories, details of the everyday environment.

Mermaids. 1879

It was followed by "The Choice of a Bride by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich" (1886), "The Death of Ivan the Terrible" (1888), "Dressing the Bride to the Wreath" (1890), "The Kissing Rite" (1895, RM). Due to the abundance of everyday details, the antique beauty of the entourage, the "noble" colors brought into unity by a common golden tone, these works enjoyed constant success, both in Russia and at international exhibitions. At the 1889 World Exhibition in Paris, K. Makovsky was awarded a gold medal for the paintings "The Death of Ivan the Terrible", "The Judgment of Paris" and "The Demon and Tamara". Foreign collectors willingly bought exotic "boyar genres", so most of these works by the artist left Russia.

Down the aisle. 1884

"Portrait of Princess Zinaida Yusupova in Russian Costume". 1900s

Undoubtedly, we can say that the eighties - the beginning of the nineties - the heyday of the artist's work. During these years, magnificent works were born, such as The Collapse of the Bank (1881), Justified (1882), Date (1883), On the Boulevard (1886-1887), The Bed House (1889).

“In the 1880s, the artist pays great attention to color,” says T. Gorina. - In a number of works of this time, persistent searches for purity and sonority of color, natural colors of nature, sunlight, transparency, lightness of air are quite obvious. Typical in this respect are such paintings as "Two Wanderers", "Horse Fair in Ukraine", "Prayer at Easter". During these years, the artist painted several purely landscape works, rare for his work. Among the best of them is “Kineshma. Embankment". V. Makovsky is a remarkable colorist and subtle psychologist in the picture "The Explanation". With its figurative structure, light lyrical feeling, this picture is close to the stories of A.P. Chekhov ... "

The noblewoman at the window. 1885

In his later works, Makovsky often writes on insignificant topics, while showing himself as an excellent storyteller and a subtle connoisseur of human psychology "School Companions" (1909), "The Last Step" (1911), "Huggling" (1912), "Waiting for an Audience" (1904) ), "In the Sun" (1885-1914).

In 1918, Makovsky, having received a pension, leaves the Academy of Arts.

The easy success of K. Makovsky, his superficiality, brilliance and attention to the beautiful surroundings, became the main reasons for the unprecedented success of his painting. After all, it was he who immersed a person in the element of beauty, in the world of graceful objects and refined feelings. Against the background of the general ethical orientation of Russian art of the 19th century, he retained the right to painting for painting.

Children running from a thunderstorm. 1872

Large ceremonial portrait of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna

Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna

Portrait of A.A. Khudyakova 1890

Portrait of the artist's children

Portrait of Alexander II.

Children of Mr. Balashov

Maria Alekseevna Makovskaya (née Matavtina) (1869-1919)

Portrait of a son in the workshop. 1882

Portrait of Countess Ekaterina Pavlovna Sheremeteva

Portrait of Countess S.L. Stroganova 1864

Portrait of Russian opera singer Sandra Panaeva (E.V. Panaeva-Kartseva; 1853-1942)

Portrait of V.A. Morozova 1884

Portrait of Countess Vera Sergeevna Zubova 1877

Portrait of the artist's wife Yulia Pavlovna Makovskaya 1881

Portrait of Count Sergei Grigorievich Stroganov.

The agents of Dmitry the Pretender kill the son of Boris Godunov. 1862.

Kissing rite

Appeal of Kuzma Minin to the people of Nizhny Novgorod in 1611

Near the outskirts. 1890s

Young noblewoman

Hawthorn at the window

"A cup of honey." Early 1880s.

Portrait of Maria Mikhailovna Volkonskaya (1863-1943)

Hawthorn

The portrait depicts the actual state councilor, state secretary of the State Council Mikhail Sergeevich Volkov, his wife Sofia Nikolaevna, née Manzei, and their son Sergei Mikhailovich Volkov-Manzei. Late 1890s

Portrait of Lieutenant of the Life Guards Gussar Regiment, Count G.A. Bobrinsky, 1879

Portrait of Count Nikolai Nikolaevich Muravyov-Amursky, Governor-General of Eastern Siberia.

For tea. 1914

"The choice of a bride by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich"

Playing blind man's buff

Festivities during Maslenitsa on Admiralty Square in St. Petersburg

Peasant lunch in the field.

"Minin on the square of Nizhny Novgorod, urging people to donate"

Konstantin Makovsky is one of the largest painters and portrait painters in Russia in the 19th century, a member of the creative association of traveling art exhibitions, the author of genre-historical works, a man of great talent and skill.

Fate was favorable to this artist. His paintings were very popular and highly valued by both Russian and foreign collectors. A huge part of the work has expanded to private collections. In Russian museums today there is a very small number of paintings by this master, because his works were snapped up by foreign buyers.

Neither more nor less, the painting "Boyar wedding feast in the 17th century", which was beyond Tretyakov's own means, was sold for a huge sum of 60,000 rubles at that time to the American jewelry master Schumann, who paid for it three times the amount that Makovsky asked for this work by the founder of the Tretyakov Gallery. The artist's paintings were as precious as the life he preferred. The master bathed in the rays of glory, idolized women and loved luxury.

Childhood and youth

K. E. Makovsky was born in 1839. His father, Yegor Ivanovich Makovsky, was a famous artist, one of the founders of the school of painting, sculpture and architecture in Moscow, which Konstantin graduated from in 1857, entering this educational institution as a twelve-year-old teenager. Since childhood, an atmosphere of worship of artistic skill reigned in the family; many famous figures of painting and culture have visited the house.

In addition to the eldest son Constantine, other children followed in their father's footsteps. Egor Ivanovich's sons Vladimir and Nikolai, as well as Alexander's daughter, gave strength and skill to painting and graphics. Only the second daughter, Maria, devoted herself to the art of singing.

Konstantin Makovsky continued his studies at the Academy of Arts of St. Petersburg, where his talent and artistic talent were quickly revealed. Already in 1862, the aspiring artist received the Small Gold Medal for his first historical work on the murder of Boris Godunov's son.

However, Makovsky did not have to graduate from the Academy in the usual way: in 1863, 14 students, including Konstantin, turned to the academic leadership with a request to independently choose the works claiming the main gold medal. Makovsky did not want to paint a picture based on Scandinavian myths.

After the denial of this right, the members of the group left the walls of the Academy with a scandal, having received diplomas of artists of the 2nd degree and subsequently founded the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. The so-called "revolt of the fourteen" was reported to Emperor Alexander and the group was quickly set up under secret double surveillance: the city police and the secret imperial one.

Creative way

After completing his studies, Konstantin Makovsky plunges headlong into the creative process. In 1866, the artist received awards for the painting "Literary Reading". For the work about how peasant children guard horses at night, based on the plot of Turgenev's story "Bezhin Meadow", the master received the Gold Medal with the title of artist of the 1st degree. He continued the childish theme in the painting "The Game of Grandma" (1870), where in the characters of the heroes of the picture he very subtly noticed their characteristic features.

In his early work, K. Makovsky creates deep semantic genre works. In 1870-72, he wrote the paintings "At the Doctor's Reception", which attracted great attention of connoisseurs with the typicality of images, humor and the original plot "Balagans on Admiralty Square" with colorful types of representatives of the Russian estates of those times, "Peasant lunch during harvest ”,“ The funeral of a child ”and“ Children running from the storm ”. In 1872-73, Makovsky created the painting "Nightingale Lovers", for which he was awarded 1 prize of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and the title of academician.

At the same time, he successfully tries himself in the portrait genre, creating both images of famous figures of art, science and society, and ordinary people. At this time, from the pen of the artist came out "Portrait of A. I. Suvorina" "," Young Italian Woman with Pomeranians "," The Herring Woman ", etc. The portrait of the artist O. Petrov was highly appreciated by V.V. and by the amazing similarity of the image with a real character.

In 1876, being already famous and in demand, K. Makovsky went on a trip to Europe and Asia, visited Serbia, Bulgaria and Egypt. The culmination of this trip was the creation of paintings, which became one of the best in his gallery: "Dervishes in Cairo" and "Bulgarian Martyrs", as well as portrait sketches "Arab boy with an orange", "Kairits", "Egyptian warrior".

At the end of the 19th century, K. Makovsky creates a large number of weighty, spectacular and entertaining historical paintings of the era of the boyar genre of the 17th century, which had the greatest success in the art world. This is the above-mentioned picture about the wedding feast of the boyars in the 17th century, and "The choice of the bride by the tsar" (1887) and "Feast at the boyar Morozov" (1895). At the same time, a series of magnificent portraits was created: "The Blind", "Monk - Collector of Taxes for the Temple", "Ophelia", many canvases with images of hawthorns.

Makovsky was married three times, raised several children, one of whom, Sergei, later became a famous poet and art critic. Recalling his path in life, Makovsky wrote that he did not bury his talent, given to him by God, in the ground, but he never fully applied it. The artist stated that he loved life too much, this love prevented him from fully surrendering to creativity.

The master died in 1915, not recovering from a fall in the street, at the age of 76, while still being creatively active. Makovsky's works have forever become one of the bestsellers of world art painting.

Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky (July 2, 1839 - September 30, 1915) - Russian artist who joined the Itinerants, a full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts.

From the age of four, Kostya Makovsky painted everything that caught his eye, and immediately showed the ability to easily “grasp nature”.
"Admire and remember!" the father instilled in his son, and demanded that Kostya sketch street scenes in his pocket album, sketch portraits of passers-by, and at home he asked the boy “Have you forgotten the peasant that he treated you to kvass? And that crow was remarkable. Come on, portray them to me ... Art is religion, art is there to ennoble people, making them kinder and better. ”Later Konstantin said that he owes his talent first of all to his father.

Makovsky's historical painting, his so-called boyar genres, corresponded to the spirit of the official nationality and the pseudo-Russian style prevalent in the art of the 1880s-90s. "Wedding Feast in a Boyar Family of the 17th Century" (1883), "Kissing Rite" (1895), "Death of Ivan the Terrible" (1888) are rather interesting from an ethnographic point of view: the artist painstakingly paints the costumes of the characters, accessories, and details of the everyday environment.

Makovsky K.E. was married twice (I will tell about this separately).
He dreamed of arranging his fate following the example of the great masters of the past, and he fulfilled his dream. But the payment for it turned out to be considerable. In his declining years, having experienced a certain satiety, he confessed: “I did not bury my God-given talent in the ground, but I also did not use it to the extent that I could. I loved life too much, and this prevented me from completely surrendering to art "

Makovsky became the victim of an accident (a tram crashed into his crew) and died in 1915 in St. Petersburg. He returned to his Vasilyeostrovsk workshop in a cab. The horses got scared of the tram, a new type of transport, and rushed, overturning the carriage. Konstantin Yegorovich fell out of this carriage, having received a blow to his head on the pavement, which caused a very serious injury, which required an operation. After the operation, he regained consciousness, but his heart could not stand the too strong dose of chloroform. Konstantin Yegorovich died without regaining consciousness. So the 74-year-old brilliant life, full of work, joy and success, ended.
Buried at the Nikolskoye cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Minin's appeal on the square of Nizhny Novgorod.