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Makovsky was the son of collector, Yegor Ivanovich Makovsky, who was one of the founders of the Moscow Art School. Vladimir had two brothers, Nikolai Makovsky and Konstantin Makovsky, and one sister, Alexandra Makovsky. All were famous painters themselves. Vladimir sutided at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. He finished his studies in 1869 and the following year became one of the founding members of the Association of Travelling Art Exhibitions, where his many years of prolific work brought him to a leading position.

Makovsky’s work was defined by a perpetual humor as well as blatant irony and scorn. During the seventies his paintings dealt primarily with small-town folk. His pictures, “The Grape-juice Seller” (1879), “Fruit-Preserving” (1876) and “The Congratulator” (1878) depict various scenes where the mood is finely conceived and almost laughter-inducing. Other works of his, such as “The Benefactor” (1874) and “The Convict” (1878) are profoundly socially-conscious. In them, Makovsky either criticizes the false sympathy of the aristocracy towards the poor, or draws attention to the oppression and persecution of the tsarist gendaremrie. In 1878, he became an academician.

In the eighties, during the time of Russian “democratic” painting, Makovsky produced some of his most revered works. In 1882, he was made professor at the Moscow Art School after the death of Vasili Perov. Some of Makovsky’s greatest works of this period include “In the Ante-rooom of the Court of COnciliation” (1880), “The Released Prisoner” (1882), and “The Collapse of the Bank” (1881). From the end of the eighties, Makovsky began to produce more gloomy works. Quintessential works of this period include “You Shall Not Go” (1892), and “On the Boulevard” (1888).

In 1894, Makovsky became Rector of the Preparatoy school of the Academy of Art. After the First Russian Revolution, he painted “January 9th, 1905, on the Vasilyev Island” in which he depicts the armed police firing at defenseless people. In another painting “The Sacrifices on the Khodyn Field” in which a thousand people lost their lives during the coronation ceremony of Nicholas II, he again stood uncompromisingly on the side of the oppressed people. After the October Revolution, Makovsky helped carry lover the realist traditions to the early stages of Socialist Realism.

Still wondering about a 19th century Russian painting in your family collection? Contact us…it could be by Vladimir Makovsky.