Pictures of Makovsky: description, photo

Artists who were part of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions - "Wanderers" - left a vivid mark on Russian painting of the last third of the 19th century. This is a very Russian phenomenon in the history of art, after all, its main feature was the indissoluble mutual influence of the country's artistic and social life. Vladimir Egorovich Makovsky joined the Wanderers in 1972, two years after his education, and was one of the most active of its participants. The paintings of Makovsky enjoyed great attention throughout the heyday of this artistic movement.

Biography

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

The very first paintings by Makovsky, beginning with the genre scene written in 15 years, The Boy Who Sings Kvass (1861), revealed his great abilities both in observing the events surrounding his life, 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 silver medal, appropriated for the painting "Literary Reading" (1865).

Many of Makovsky's paintings have become stages in his creative and professional development. For the painting "Peasant boys guard horses" (1869), he received the title of "class artist of the first degree", and for "Lovers of Nightingales" (1973) was promoted to academics of painting.

A lot of time was occupied in the life of the master of pedagogical activity. For 12 years he taught at MUZHVZ - from 1882 to 1894, and 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 game of money" (1870)

The artist married early, and in 1869 his first son was born, which later became also an artist - Alexander Makovsky. Vladimir Egorovich, whose paintings already had a distinct genre identity, has since given much attention to the children's theme. Among his paintings are a picture that became the first, purchased by the famous collector Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov. This became for Makovsky the symbol of his final recognition as a painter.

Peasant children play in the most accessible game for them. It uses pasterns - small bones from the skeleton of domestic animals - cows or pigs. This competition in accuracy: those bones, which hit a special beat (a grandmother, weighted lead), become the prey of the player.

... Now for them the main thing is the game, which they give with all their passion. One, sitting, concentrating counting prey, the others carefully expect another throw. Makovsky, whose paintings are distinguished by meticulousness in everyday details, is also accurate in psychological nuances. All the players have their temperament, their character. General - mild humor and optimism, ineradicable even by the poverty of clothing and the dilapidation of surrounding buildings.

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

"Lovers of nightingales" (1873)

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

Outside the window a nightingale trill sounded, and three peasants were heard, interrupting their simple meal. One, standing, froze, looking in the window, trying to look out for a little pichuzhku. The second, who obviously drank more than his friends, waved the palms of the nightingale with the sweep of his hand. The third, the most solid, listens, picking his beard thoughtfully. Here everything is full of life and sound: light from the window, poses and gestures of characters, a pot-bellied hot samovar, a simple but "tasty" written still life.

There is a well-known opinion about this picture of the great Dostoevsky, who appreciated the good and attention to the common man coming from the picture, which had not only a Russian but also a universal scale.

The condemned man (1879)

Gradually, in the plot of the artist disappears inherent in the early paintings of humor and ironic attitude towards the characters. Cloths acquire dramatism and ambiguity. These are several variants of the picture depicting raznochintsy who took the path of revolutionary struggle, and the attitude to such figures of representatives of different strata of the Russian people.

A young man is taken out of the courthouse by an armed convoy. On the way out, relatives are waiting for him, including a mother, a father, a young girl and an elderly person. Apparently, the main character by origin from the peasants or the urban poor. His fiancee and her father belong to a more prosperous class. The artist does not show obvious goodwill towards the convict, there is no sympathy for him and others. He brought to his relatives one suffering - the mother imploringly folded her hands, exhorting her son, the father inconsolably crying.

And the revolutionary himself does not look like an unyielding hero-sufferer for the people. In his view - the loss and lack of conviction in his rightness. Makovsky, whose pictures - the exact reflection of the prevailing moods in society, shows a change in attitude towards methods of struggle with the existing system, resorted to by radical-minded parties and movements like "Narodnaya Volya".

The "Appointment" (1883)

Children - a topic over which Makovsky often worked. Vladimir Yegorovich, whose pictures at first - only a reflection of childish immediacy, admiring the beginning of a new life, further speaks of the different, often dramatic aspects of childhood in then-Russia.

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

It is about such a child's destiny that Makovsky narrates. The description of the picture 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 with pity looks at the barefooted boy dressed in a dirty apron - obviously, he works in a workshop and got a few minutes of free time for a date with his mother.

The painterly manner of the artist has also changed - in it there are no detailed and carefully written out details distracting attention and splitting the image. The gloomy color serves not to express the joy of a short-term meeting, but to reflect the heavy mood of a lost childhood.

"On the Boulevard" (1886)

Makovsky often said that at the disposal of the artist only a few minutes, for which one must have time to tell that the writer can take many pages. In 1880, the master achieved the highest skill in creating such pictures-short stories. One of these peaks is in both painting and artistry, the canvas "On the Boulevard." During this period, the paintings of VE Makovsky contain only two characters, but they are sufficient for a deep analysis of public problems of a huge scale.

Before us is a little story about the dramatic break in the life of a young family. It seems that they come from a village where they were prepared to live, like their parents, in the ordinary labors and joys of the peasant way of life. But her husband was drawn to the city, to work, to a new, "beautiful" and interesting life. And after a while my wife came to visit her husband. Now they are strangers. He managed to soak in the city spirit - he carefully watches the exterior, in the hands of a small accordion - it is clear that he likes most in urban life.

The girl is still quite young, but already understands that she can wait in the future, where she sees complete hopelessness. From this picture, Vladimir Makovsky is bored, it is a kind of reflection of the private drama of two small people, and demonstrates the scale of the national problem of destroying the habitual way of life that has developed over the centuries, and now it collapses as industrial centers develop.

Heritage

Vladimir Egorovich was noted for his great diligence and creative fecundity. The result of his many years of work was a genuine encyclopaedia of the most typical phenomena of Russian reality at the turn of two centuries. He turned to themes of different scale - 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 VE Makovsky had become a supporter of more conservative views on the development of painting, negatively relating to the search for new themes and expressive means. But the scale of this figure in the Russian fine arts does not get any smaller.