Literary and historical notes of a young technician. Family album of Konstantin Makovsky in picturesque portraits: paintings that Tretyakov himself could not buy because of the high cost. How many paintings did Makovsky paint in his entire life?

“If any artist was popular in Rus', it was him. Perhaps they didn’t pray to him, they didn’t call him a god, but everyone loved him, and they loved his very shortcomings - the very thing that brought the artist closer to his time.” Alexander Benois

In his book “My Dagestan,” reflecting on human talent, the world-famous poet voiced an interesting thought: “Talent is not inherited, otherwise dynasties would reign in art...”. Perhaps this is the only thought of the great Avar with which one can disagree or challenge it.

In contrast to Rasul Gamzatov, no less interesting wisdom comes to mind: “The beauty of the branches depends on the roots”. Ironically, this idea belongs to the Soviet Avar poetess, the people's poetess of Dagestan - Faz Gamzatovna Aliyeva.

There really are few reigning dynasties in art, but there was one of them, and in Russian art, and a very talented one. So much so that everyone - both father and children - all became famous artists. Of course, this is the Makovsky dynasty. The founder of the dynasty of painters was Yegor Ivanovich Makovsky. The successors were his children - Alexandra Egorovna, Konstantin Egorovich, Nikolai Egorovich, and his grandchildren.

All of them were very famous in artistic circles, but world famous and most dear artist The eldest of the sons, Konstantin, left the dynasty.

In the second half of the 19th century Konstantin Makovsky was one of the most fashionable and expensive portrait painters in Russia. His contemporaries called him “the brilliant Kostya,” and Emperor Alexander II called him “my painter.” They say that it was because of K. Makovsky’s “naked Mermaids” that Alexander II first visited the exhibition of the Wanderers.

In terms of sales volumes, the works of Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky are comparable only to the paintings of one of the most prolific Russian masters.

Makovsky’s world fame was so great that it was him who the Americans invited to paint the first presidential portrait of Theodore Roosevelt.

In Russia, envious people called him a superficial artist who did not want to “dig deep,” but they could not deny his genius light hand competitor. The lion's share of his works ended up in private collections...

Do you know why in domestic museums Are there practically no works by Makovsky? Because Russian collectors simply couldn’t afford them.

So Makovsky asked Tretyakov for his “Boyar Wedding Feast in the 17th Century” for no less than 20,000, and this was the normal price for his work. Tretyakov couldn’t afford such prices, and “The Feast” went to the American jeweler Schumann for... 60,000. At the same time, the jeweler was simply happy, ordered another canvas and began producing postcards with Makovsky’s paintings in the USA.

Painting "Boyar wedding feast in the 17th century", one of the best masterpieces Makovsky, enjoyed dizzying success in 1883 at the World Exhibition in Antwerp and was awarded the highest award - the Great Gold Medal. The artist himself was awarded the Order of King Leopold.

While working on this painting, the artist’s wife Yulia Pavlovna (the bride’s face), her sister Ekaterina and eldest son Sergei posed for the artist.

IN Soviet time Makovsky was declared a “harmful” artist and was forgotten; his works were stuffed into storage rooms and then given away to friendly foreign leaders. Thus, even the Indonesian President Sukarno received several paintings from the generosity; today they are the pride of the local government art gallery.

“The best beauties vied with each other to pose for me. I made a lot of money and lived with regal luxury. “I managed to paint a countless number of paintings,” Makovsky himself wrote. “I didn’t bury my God-given talent in the ground, but I didn’t use it to the extent that I could have. I loved life too much, and this prevented me from completely devoting myself to art.”

He also loved women. Konstantin Egorovich was a very loving man. By the time he met his first wife, he already had an illegitimate daughter, Natalya, Natalya Lebedeva, who only in 1877 received the surname Makovskaya, the fruit of his student hobby.

In 1867, he married a young, promising actress of the Alexandria Theater, Elena Timofeevna Burkova, who was educated in Switzerland. Helen brought a lot of love and sensitive sociability into his absent-minded “bohemian” life. She was fragile, sickly and could not be considered beautiful, but her appearance and her whole “manner of being” emanated an inexplicable charm.

It was happy marriage people with common interests and spiritual needs, but happiness did not last long. First, almost immediately after his birth in 1871, his son Vladimir died. That same year, Elena was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Doctors said that a warm, dry climate could save her, and Makovsky took his wife to Egypt. However, nothing helped, and in March 1873 the artist was widowed. It is still unknown what the artist’s wife looked like. Perhaps she is the one in one of the next portraits?

In his youth, Konstantin Egorovich had a charming appearance, a carefree, festive gaiety of disposition, a habit of making quick decisions, hard work and greed for the joys of life. He was always in good spirits, friendly, smart, well-groomed, smelling of cologne and fine tobacco, carefree, charming, dexterous, and in unusually good health.

The lush, curly head thrown back with a prematurely bald forehead compressed at the temples gave the purely Russian face with a dark brown beard an open and independent look. Attention to the famous, pampered artist always acquired a tinge of enthusiastic worship. In society he was invariably pleasant and talkative; a smile appeared on their faces when Konstantin Yegorovich entered the room.

Konstantin Makovsky did not remain an inconsolable widower for long. In 1874, at a ball in the Marine Corps, he met Yulia Pavlovna Letkova , who came to enter the conservatory (she had a beautiful voice, a lyric soprano), who soon became his wife.

She was only sixteen years old, but with her ability to behave in society and mental maturity, she seemed older. Judging by the bad photographs of that time, she was very beautiful. Konstantin Egorovich fell in love at first sight and did not leave her all evening. The next day, the loving “professor of painting” hastened to invite everyone to his place to “play music.” For dinner, Konstantin Yegorovich led young Letkova by the arm and, seating her at the table next to him, said loudly so that everyone could hear: “That’s great... Be my mistress!” . Thus began their engagement...

Two weeks after the evening on Gagarinskaya Embankment, it was decided to have a wedding as soon as the bride turns sixteen. On January 22, 1875, the wedding took place in the Post Office Church. The bride was 16, the groom was 36 years old.

For a decade and a half, Yulia Pavlovna Makovskaya, the artist’s wife, was his muse, a model for portraits, historical paintings and mythological compositions.

According to family legend, the appearance of the famous portrait of the artist’s wife was accidental. Yulia Pavlovna went up to her husband’s workshop, dressed in a dark red velvet hood and a blue ribbon. Konstantin Yegorovich, enthusiastically working on some canvas, at first did not pay attention to her, and she, sulking, sat down in a chair and began absentmindedly cutting the pages of the book with an ivory knife.

The artist turned around, immediately placed the first narrow canvas that came to hand on the easel and sketched the silhouette of his wife with a book in her hands. In three sessions the portrait was completed, and the whole city was talking about it.

“This crimson dress rings like a sharp high note among the dull tones of our gray everyday life,” wrote one of his contemporaries.

In the spring of 1875, the couple went to Paris. Konstantin rented a workshop on the famous Boulevard Clichy and an apartment on Brussels, diagonally from the Viardots. Turgenev, whose portrait Makovsky painted earlier, was their frequent guest. Artists - Russians and Parisians - gathered in Viardot's house, and artists often visited.

The Makovskys returned from Paris a year later with a newborn daughter, and at the end of the summer grief happened - the girl died of scarlet fever. The seventeen-year-old mother took the death of her first-born very hard, but youth took its toll, and soon she again began to expect an addition to the family, and to recover she went to Nice.

August 15, 1877 in Pereyaslavtsev’s house on the embankment near Nikolaevsky Bridge, the son of Seryozha was born - a future art critic, essayist, poet, editor and publisher of Apollo, a wonderful Russian magazine, almanac.

We can say that Sergei literally became a model for his father’s paintings from the cradle. He later recalled that for a very long time they dressed him in the children's fashion of those years and grew the curls that Konstantin Makovsky liked so much. You can recall the paintings “In the Artist’s Studio” (which Konstantin Makovsky himself called “The Little Thief”), “The Little Antiquarian”, “Seryozha”.

In 1879, Elena was born to the Makovskys, and in 1883, a son, Vladimir, was born, whom he baptized Grand Duke Alexey Alexandrovich, brother Alexandra III. They were also destined to become models for Konstantin Yegorovich.

The workshop in which the children posed for their father was itself a source strong impressions: it was all hung with Persian carpets, African ritual masks, ancient weapons, cages with songbirds. Chinese vases contained tassels, ostrich and peacock feathers, sofas were decorated with numerous brocade pillows, and tables were decorated with ivory boxes. Naturally, the children were drawn to their father’s office, and posing was not a burden to them.

In 1889, Konstantin Makovsky went to the World Exhibition in Paris, where he exhibited several of his paintings. There he met 20-year-old Maria Alekseevna Matavtina (1869-1919) and became interested in her. The fruit of this hobby was born in 1891 illegitimate son Konstantin. The artist was forced to confess everything to his wife. And she did not forgive the betrayal.

On November 18, 1892, Yulia Pavlovna filed a petition “to grant her the right to live with three children using a separate passport from her husband and to remove the latter from any interference in the upbringing and education of children.” On May 26, 1898, the official divorce was filed. Yulia Pavlovna was only 39 years old! Konstantin Egorovich is 59 years old.

Yulia Pavlovna lived the remaining 56 years of her life in the family of her son Sergei. She was in exile, in France, helping her son write an essay about his father, which was especially difficult for him to write; he was never able to forgive him.

And Konstantin Makovsky married Maria Matavtina on June 6, 1898, and the court legitimized their children. By that time, daughters Olga and Marina were also born. Afterwards, a son, Nikolai, was born. The artist continued to use children from his third marriage and his new wife as models.

Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky died on September 17, 1915 as a result of an accident. He was returning to his Vasilyeostrovsk workshop in a cab. The horses got scared of the tram, a new type of transport, and bolted, overturning the carriage. Konstantin Egorovich fell out of this carriage, receiving a blow to his head on the pavement, which caused a very serious injury that required surgery. After the operation he came to his senses, but his heart could not withstand too strong a dose of chloroform. This is how the 74-year-old ended brilliant life, full of work, joy and success.

Facts from the life of K. Makovsky

“For what came out of me, I consider myself obliged not to the academy, not to the professors, but exclusively to my father,” K. Makovsky wrote in his declining years.

Everything is interesting in childhood. A mangy crow funny drank from a puddle. On Lenivka, a clean man was selling delicious raspberry kvass. In a store on Tverskaya, the Italian Giuseppe Artari was laying out prints ordered from abroad.

“Admire and remember!” the father instilled in his son, and demanded that Kostya sketch street scenes in a pocket sketchbook, sketch portraits of passers-by, and at home he asked the boy, “Have you forgotten the man who treated you to kvass?” And that crow was remarkable. Come on, draw them for me... Art is a religion, art exists for this purpose, to ennoble people, making them kinder and better.”

Kostya Makovsky, from the age of four, drew everything that caught his eye, and immediately showed the ability to easily “grasp nature.” At the age of twelve he entered the School of Painting and Sculpture, where his first mentors were Scotti, Zaryanko, and Tropinin. He mastered the latter’s painting style to perfection—a copy of Makovsky from Tropinin’s portrait was indistinguishable from the original. While still at the School, he received a small silver medal from the Academy for a pencil sketch (1857).

Particularly famous in the artist’s work was the painting "Children Running from a Thunderstorm" , depicting a simple but dramatic plot from rural life.

The children here resemble fairy-tale characters - sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka. The artist was attracted by the feeling of anxiety before a thunderstorm, which united nature and children. The landscape, permeated by the wind, captures the changing state of nature: alternation of light and shadow, a variety of shades of the sky - from dark purple to golden yellow. The swaying tops of plants and running clouds emphasize the movements of children driven by the wind. The shaky bridge bends under the girl’s hasty steps - a thunderstorm will break out very soon. And below, near the ground, where marsh grasses and flowers intertwine, there is peace and quiet.

Riot of the Fourteen - on November 9 (21), 1863, the scandalous refusal of the fourteen best graduates of the Imperial Academy of Arts, headed by I. N. Kramskoy, to participate in the competition for the Great gold medal, held for the 100th anniversary of the Academy of Arts.

While studying at the Moscow School of Painting, Konstantin Makovsky was the first student to receive all available awards. But later, while studying at the Academy, he, along with other students, refused to paint a competition picture on the theme of “Scandinavian mythology” - he took part in the so-called "revolt of fourteen" , and in the end did not receive a diploma. And yet, a few years later the artist was awarded the titles of academician, professor, and full member of the Academy of Arts.

Makovsky’s brush includes the largest easel canvas in Russia - the painting “Minin’s Appeal to the People of Nizhny Novgorod,” which he painted for six years.

Especially interesting direction in the artist’s work there was the image of “Boyaryshen” and Russian beauties in national costumes— more than 60 paintings, and all of them are bright, rich and unique. Some of the most famous:

The 1880s revealed Makovsky as the author of portraits and creator historical paintings. At the Paris World Exhibition of 1889, the artist received a Grand Gold Medal for his paintings “The Death of Ivan the Terrible” (1888), “The Judgment of Paris” and “The Demon and Tamara” (1889).

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Favorite Russian artists Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky

Favorite Russian artists

Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky

"I didn’t bury my God-given talent, but I didn’t use it as much as I could have. I loved life too much, and this prevented me from completely devoting myself to art."

K.E. Makovsky

Self-portrait. 1860

Future artist, Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky, born June 20 (July 2), 1839. His father, Yegor Ivanovich, was a famous artistic figure in Moscow, one of the founders of the Natural Class. A creative atmosphere surrounded the future artist and his brother from childhood. Famous painters and school teachers constantly visited my father’s house. It is not surprising that all of Yegor Ivanovich’s children: daughter Alexandra, sons Konstantin, Nikolai and Vladimir, brought up in the spirit of love of art, under the influence of their father, an erudite and enthusiast, became artists. “For what came out of me, I consider myself indebted 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 begin studying 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 great silver medal for the picture " Literary reading" Continuing his education at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, in 1869 Makovsky received a gold medal and the title of artist of the first degree for the painting “Peasant Boys Guarding Horses at Night,” which echoes Turgenev’s story “Bezhin Meadow.” The painting “The Game of Grandmas” (1870) can be considered a kind of continuation of the theme. The artist subtly noticed character traits his little heroes, he undoubtedly succeeded in the Russian rural landscape, but, undoubtedly, one of the best paintings in early work Makovsky can rightfully be considered “Folk festivities during Maslenitsa on Admiralty Square in St. Petersburg” - a genuine gallery of colorful types of urban classes. For this work, Makovsky was awarded the title of professor of the Academy of Arts, where radical reforms took place at that time, and household painting from persecuted turned into highly encouraged.

Herring girl. 1867

Little organ grinders. 1868

Folk festivities during Maslenitsa on Admiralteyskaya Square in St. Petersburg. 1869

In 1863, together with thirteen other graduates of the Academy - candidates for the big gold medal, K. Makovsky refused to paint a picture based on the proposed plot from Scandinavian mythology and left the Academy without entering the 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 painting “Nightingale Lovers,” for which he was awarded the 1st Prize of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts and was awarded the title of academician.

Boyar wedding feast in the 17th century. 1883

Developing his own elegant and effective style, K. Makovsky began to gradually move away from collective forms artistic life, turning into a “maestro” with a certain range of favorite themes, genres and painting techniques. Also in early years the artist painted portraits to order, and soon turned into a fashionable portrait painter. Portraits of his work, especially women and children ("Portrait of S.L. Stroganova", 1864, Tretyakov Gallery; "Portrait of the artist's wife", 1881, Russian Museum; "Family Portrait", 1882, Russian Museum; "Portrait of M.E. Orlova-Davydova ", Tretyakov Gallery). Transparent moving 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 3

Portrait of Alexander 2 on his deathbed. 1881

The artist himself, slightly ironically, recalled this side of his activity: “The best beauties vied with each other to pose for me... I earned enormous money, lived in royal luxury and managed to paint a countless number 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 Wanderers and began to arrange personal exhibitions of their works. In 1883, he thus showed the painting “Boyar Wedding Feast in XVII century", which was soon bought to America. This work is rather interesting from an ethnographic point of view: the artist carefully describes the costumes of the characters, accessories, and 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 for the Crown” (1890), “The Kissing Rite” (1895, Russian Russian Museum). Thanks to the abundance of everyday details, the antique beauty of the surroundings, “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 his 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 the artist’s similar works left Russia.

Down the aisle. 1884

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

Undoubtedly, we can say that the eighties and early nineties were the heyday of the artist’s creativity. During these years, magnificent works were born, such as “The Collapse of the Bank” (1881), “Justified” (1882), “Rendezvous” (1883), “On the Boulevard” (1886-1887), and “The Lodging House” (1889).

“In the 1880s, the artist paid a lot of attention to color,” notes T. Gorina. - In a number of works of this time, the persistent search for the purity and sonority of color, the naturalness of the colors of nature, sunlight, transparency, lightness of air. Characteristic in this regard are such paintings as “Two Wanderers”, “Horse Fair in Ukraine”, “Prayer for 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 appears as a wonderful colorist and subtle psychologist in the film “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 later works Makovsky often writes on unimportant topics, while showing himself to be an excellent storyteller and a keen expert human psychology“Schoolmates” (1909), “The Last Step” (1911), “The Survivor” (1912), “Waiting for an Audience” (1904), “In the Sun” (1885-1914).

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

The easy success of K. Makovsky, his superficiality, colorfulness and attention to 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 elegant objects and refined feelings. Against the background of the general ethical orientation of the Russian art of the 19th century century, he retained the right of painting to be picturesque.

Children running from a thunderstorm. 1872

Large ceremonial portrait of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna

Portrait 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.

Agents of Dmitry the Pretender kill the son of Boris Godunov. 1862.

Kissing ritual

Kuzma Minin's appeal to the people of Nizhny Novgorod in 1611

At the outskirts. 1890s

Young noblewoman

Hawthorn at the window

"A glass 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 Hussar Regiment, Count G.A. Bobrinsky, 1879

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

Over tea. 1914

"Choice of a Bride by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich"

Game of blind man's buff

Folk festivities during Maslenitsa on Admiralteyskaya Square in St. Petersburg

Peasant lunch in the field.

"Minin on Nizhny Novgorod Square, calling on people for donations"

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

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

Biography

He was one of the three sons of Yegor Ivanovich Makovsky - an outstanding artistic figure in Moscow, a collector, one of the founders of the famous Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Both brothers - Konstantin and Nikolai - as well as sister Alexandra became artists, and the other sister - Maria - became a singer. As a child, one of Vladimir’s teachers was the famous Vasily Tropinin.

Makovsky’s very first paintings, starting with the genre sketch “The Boy Selling Kvass” (1861), written at the age of 15, revealed his great abilities both in observing the events of the life around him and in transferring them to the canvas. In 1861, he entered the MUZHVZ - a school, one of the founders of which was his father. He graduated with a prize for the painting “Literary Reading” (1865).

Many of Makovsky’s paintings became milestones in his creative and professional development. For the painting “Peasant Boys Guarding Horses” (1869), he received the title “ cool artist first degree”, and for “Nightingale Lovers” (1973) he was promoted to academician of painting.

Took a lot of time in the life of the master pedagogical activity. For 12 years he taught at the Moscow School of Art and Culture, 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 Academy of Arts. art school at the Academy of Arts.

Died famous artist in February 1920 in Petrograd.

"Game of Grandmas" (1870)

The artist married early, and in 1869 his first son was born, who later also became an artist - Alexander Makovsky. Vladimir Egorovich, whose paintings already had a distinct genre affiliation, has since paid a lot of attention to children's themes. Among such paintings of his, a painting stands out, which became the first 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 babkas - small bones from the skeleton of domestic animals - cows or pigs. This is a competition in accuracy: those bones that are hit with a special cue ball (a headstock weighted with lead) become the player’s prey.

...Now the main thing for them is the game, to which they devote themselves with all passion. One sits, concentrating on counting the spoils, while others carefully await 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 denominator is gentle 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, which sometimes interferes with a holistic perception. In the future, the artist’s brush will gain greater freedom, and the palette will become more integral, which will avoid some of the diversity inherent, in particular, in the picture we examined.

"The Nightingale Lovers" (1873)

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

A nightingale trill was heard outside the window, and three peasants listened, interrupting their simple feast. One, standing, froze, looking out the window, trying to look out for the little birdie. The second one, who has clearly drunk more than his friends, counts down the sounds of the nightingale's song with waves of his palm. The third, the most respectable one, listens, thoughtfully pinching his beard. Everything here is full of life and sound: the light from the window, the poses and gestures of the characters, the pot-bellied hot samovar, the simple but “deliciously” painted still life.

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

"Condemned" (1879)

Gradually, the artist’s subjects lose the inherent early paintings humor and ironic attitude towards the characters. The canvases acquire drama and ambiguity. These are several versions of the picture depicting commoners who have taken the path of revolutionary struggle, and the attitude of representatives of different strata of the Russian people towards such figures.

The young man is escorted out of the courthouse by an armed escort. Relatives are waiting for him at the exit, including his mother, father, young girl and an elderly man. As it appears, main character by origin from peasants or the urban poor. His fiancée and her father belong to the wealthier class. The artist does not show obvious benevolence towards the convict; there is no visible sympathy for him among those around him. He brought only suffering to his loved ones - the mother folded her hands imploringly, admonishing her son, the father sobbed inconsolably.

And the revolutionary himself does not look like an unyielding hero-sufferer for the people. In his gaze there is loss and lack of conviction that he is right. Makovsky, whose paintings are an accurate reflection of the prevailing mood 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 “People's Will”.

"Rendezvous" (1883)

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

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

It is precisely this child’s fate that Makovsky narrates. can take many pages, although there are only two characters on the canvas. The peasant woman walked a long way with a small bundle and a stick in her hands. She brought her son a kalach 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 artist’s painting style has also changed - there are no detailed and carefully painted details that distract attention and fragment the image. The gloomy coloring does not serve to express the joy of a short meeting, but to reflect the difficult mood of a lost childhood.

"On the Boulevard" (1886)

Makovsky often said that an artist has only a few minutes at his disposal, during which he must manage to tell something that might take a writer many pages. In the 1880s the master reached the highest skill in the creation of such paintings-novels. One of these peaks both in terms of pictorial skill and content is the canvas “On the Boulevard”. During this period, V. E. Makovsky’s paintings contain only two characters, but they are enough for in-depth analysis social problems huge scale.

Before us is a small story about a dramatic break in the life of a young family. It seems that they came from a village where they were preparing to live, like their parents, in ordinary labors and joys 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 has managed to imbue himself with the city spirit - he carefully monitors his appearance, he holds a small accordion in his hands - it is clear what he likes most about city life.

The girl is still very young, but she already understands what may await her in the future, where she sees complete hopelessness. This painting by Vladimir Makovsky emanates melancholy, it is a unique reflection of the private drama of two little people, and demonstrates the scale national problem the destruction of the usual way of life, which has developed over centuries, and is now being destroyed with the development of industrial centers.

Heritage

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

Historians Russian art note that towards the end of his life V. E. Makovsky became a supporter of more conservative views on the development of painting, having a negative attitude towards the search for new themes and expressive means. But the scale of this figure in Russian fine arts it doesn't make it any smaller.

Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky (June 20 (July 2), 1839 - September 17 (30), 1915) - Russian painter, one of the early participants in the Wanderers Association.

Born in Moscow. The son of an artist and amateur artist, Yegor Ivanovich Makovsky, one of the founders of the “natural class” on Bolshaya Nikitskaya, which later became the School of Painting and Sculpture, and after 1865 the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Brother of painters Alexandra, Nikolai and Vladimir Makovsky. Younger sister artist, Maria Egorovna Makovskaya was an actress. Family friends included Karl Bryullov and Vasily Tropinin. Later, Konstantin Makovsky wrote: “For what came out of me, I consider myself obliged not to the academy, not to the professors, but exclusively to my father.”

In 1851 he entered the Moscow school painting and sculpture, where, as the first student, he easily received all available awards. His teachers were M.I. Scotti, A.N. Mokritsky, S.K. Zaryanko, all students of Karl Bryullov. Makovsky's penchant for romanticism and decorative effects can be explained by the influence of Bryullov.

In 1858, Makovsky entered the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. Since 1860, he participated in exhibitions of the academy with such paintings as “Healing the Blind” (1860) and “Agents of Demetrius the Pretender Kill the Son of Boris Godunov” (1862). In 1863, Makovsky, along with 13 other students selected to participate in the competition for the Academy's Great Gold Medal, refused to paint a picture on the theme of Scandinavian mythology and left the academy without receiving a diploma.

A little later he joined the artel of artists headed by Ivan Kramskoy, creating paintings from Everyday life(Widow (1865), Herring Seller (1867), etc.), and in 1870 - to the “Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions”. Konstantin Makovsky exhibits his works both at Academy exhibitions and at traveling art exhibitions.

Significant changes in his style occurred after traveling to Egypt and Serbia in the mid-1870s. His interests shifted from social and psychological problems To artistic problems colors and shapes.

In the 1880s, Konstantin Makovsky gained fame as a fashionable author of portraits and historical paintings and became one of the highest paid Russian artists that time. At the 1889 World Exhibition in Paris, he received a Grand Gold Medal for his paintings “The Death of Ivan the Terrible”, “The Judgment of Paris” and “The Demon and Tamara”. Some democratic critics viewed him as a traitor to the ideals of the Peredvizhniki, who, like Henryk Semiradsky, created works that were striking in appearance but superficial in meaning.

In 1915, along with many other artists of his time, he participated in the establishment of the Society for the Revival of Artistic Rus'. In June of this year, Konstantin Makovsky, having become a victim of an accident (a tram crashed into his carriage), died in Petrograd. He was buried at the Nikolskoye cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra (the grave has not survived).

The artist's painting style has features of several styles. Having left school and being a representative of academicism, he at the same time demonstrates some qualities that are most clearly manifested in the work of the Russian impressionists. In addition, some of his historical paintings, such as The Dress of the Russian Bride (1889), show an idealized view of life in Russia of previous eras.

Illegitimate daughter - Natalya Konstantinovna Makovskaya (Lebedeva) - (1860-1939).

Wife, from November 11, 1866 - Elena Timofeevna Burkova (stage name Cherkasova). Artist of the drama troupe of the Imperial Theaters in St. Petersburg, illegitimate daughter of Count V. A. Adlerberg, who was Minister of the Court under Nicholas I. Son Vladimir (1871-1871). In March 1873, the artist became a widower.

Second marriage, from January 22, 1875, to Yulia Pavlovna Letkova (1859 - November 23, 1954). Her sister is Letkova, Ekaterina Pavlovna. The Letkov sisters, famous beauties in their time, repeatedly served Makovsky as models for his works.

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Makovsky Konstantin Egorovich (1839-1915), Russian artist, master of painting, representative of academic romanticism.

Born in Moscow on June 20 (July 2), 1839 in the family of E.I. Makovsky, an accountant and amateur artist, one of the founders of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (MUZHVZ). Brother of the artist V.E. Makovsky. He studied at the Moscow School of Painting and Painting (1851-1858), where his main mentor was S.K. Zaryanko, as well as at the Academy of Arts (1858-1863). A participant in the “revolt of the fourteen”, he was one of the founding members of the “Association of the Wanderers” (1870), but from 1883 he exhibited his things independently, taking an independent position in relation to both the “Wanderers” and the Academy. In 1876 he visited the Middle East, including Egypt, as well as Bulgaria and Serbia. Lived and worked in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Paris.

He received an academic gold medal for the melodramatic film Agents of Dmitry the Pretender Kill Boris Godunov (1862), entirely in line with romantic historicism. He wrote many sentimental characters and scenes from “folk life,” including the popular Children Running from a Thunderstorm (1872) and touching image old servant Alekseich (1882). He proved himself to be a major master of portraiture ( Opera singer O.A.Petrov, 1870; all in Tretyakov Gallery). However, he gained real authority with the painting Balagany on Admiralty Square (1869, Russian Museum), where he gave genre scene unprecedented monumental scale, presenting in this Maslenitsa festivities the image of “the whole of St. Petersburg,” as V.V. Stasov noted, who rated the painting very highly. Here his main gift manifested itself: the talent of an artist-director who also knows how to give his things a special coloristic gloss. This gloss, coupled with an increasing love for exotic and medieval themes, far from the “spite of the day”, for a long time secured Konstantin Makovsky’s reputation as a “salon artist”, a visual reproach to which his more politically engaged younger brother. However, in fact, the master’s art was (like the art of the “salon” H. Semiradsky) highly stylistically promising, opening a direct path to symbolism and modernity with their rapture of dazzling, super-real beauty. The development of the “director’s” gift was facilitated by the master’s love for his family. opera performances, in which he himself performed as an outstanding singer.

The fabulous picturesqueness of the East was embodied in the large-scale painting The Return of the Sacred Carpet from Mecca to Cairo (1876, ibid.). In the 1880-1890s, Makovsky often turned to Russian history of the 17th century, writing whole line lush “boyar feasts” and “weddings”, which were a resounding success abroad (Kissing Rite, 1895, Russian Museum; etc.). The huge canvas by Minin on Nizhny Novgorod Square (1896), painted for the Nizhny Novgorod Fair and placed in a special pavilion (now in the city Palace of Labor), is distinguished by its special scope and mass of bright details. IN late period reaped the fruits of success by commercially varying successful motives.

Makovsky became a victim of a street accident (his cab was hit by a tram) and died in St. Petersburg on September 17 (30), 1915.