The artists who were part of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions - the "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 Wanderers in 1972, two years after his 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 artist, 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, became a singer. In childhood, one of the teachers of Vladimir was the famous Vasily Tropinin.
The very first paintings by Makovsky, starting with the genre scene written at the age of 15, “The Boy Selling Kvass” (1861), revealed his great abilities both in observing the events of 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 awarded for the painting "Literary Reading" (1865).
Many of Makovsky’s paintings became 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 "Nightingale Lovers" (1973) he was promoted to academician of painting.
A lot of time in the life of the master was teaching. For 12 years he taught at the Moscow School of Art and Art, 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 Grandmas (1870)
The artist married early, and in 1869 his first son was born, who later became also an artist - Alexander Makovsky. Vladimir Egorovich, whose paintings already had a distinct genre affiliation, since that time has paid much attention to the theme of children. Among such canvases, the picture that became the first purchased by the famous collector Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov stands out. This became for Makovsky a symbol of his final recognition as a painter.
Peasant children play the most accessible game for them. Grandmas are used in it - small bones from the skeleton of domestic animals - cows or pigs. This competition is in accuracy: those bones that got hit with a special cue ball (grandma weighted with lead) become the player’s prey.
... Now the main thing for them is the game to which they surrender with all their passion. One, sitting, intently counts the prey, the others carefully await the next throw. Makovsky, whose paintings are distinguished by meticulousness in everyday details, is accurate in psychological nuances. All players have their own temperament, their own character. The general thing is mild humor and optimism, indestructible even by the poverty of clothes and the dilapidation of the surrounding buildings.
Makovsky's early paintings are distinguished by excessive elaboration of details, sometimes interfering with holistic perception. In the future, the artist’s brush gains more freedom, and the palette becomes more integral, which will allow to avoid some variegation inherent in, in particular, the painting examined by us.
"Nightingale Lovers" (1873)
This painting represented Russian painting at the World Exhibition in Vienna, where it received great attention from the audience.
A nightingale trill rang out the window, and the three peasants listened, interrupting their uncomplicated feast. One, standing, froze, looking out the window, trying to look out for a small bird. The second, who clearly drank more of his friends, with a wave of his hand counts the overflows of a nightingale song. The third, most respectable, 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, a simple but “tasty” written still life.
There is a known review of this picture of the great Dostoevsky, who praised the kindness and attention to the common man emanating from the picture, which had not only Russian, but also a universal scale.
The Convict (1879)
Gradually, in the artist’s plots, the humor and ironic attitude to the characters inherent in early paintings disappear. Canvases acquire drama and ambiguity. These are several versions of the picture depicting the raznochintsy who have embarked on the path of revolutionary struggle, and the attitude of representatives of different strata of the Russian people towards such figures.
An armed convoy takes the young man out of the courthouse. At the exit he is expected by relatives, including his mother, father, young girl and an elderly man. Apparently, the main character is from a peasant or urban poor. His bride and her father belong to a more prosperous class. The artist does not show obvious benevolence towards the convict; one does not see sympathy for him and those around him. He brought his loved ones one misery - the mother pleadingly folded her arms, exhorting her son, the father weeps inconsolably.
And the revolutionary himself does not look like an adamant hero-sufferer for the people. In his view - the loss and lack of confidence in his innocence. Makovsky, whose paintings are an exact reflection of the mood prevailing in society, shows a change in attitude towards methods of combating the existing system, which were resorted to by radical parties and movements like the People’s Will.
The Date (1883)
Children is a topic Makovsky often worked on. Vladimir Egorovich, whose paintings at first is only a reflection of children's spontaneity, admiring the beginning of a new life, later on speaks of different, often dramatic aspects of childhood in what was then Russia.
In poor families, it was customary to give children “to people.” The child often became a powerless servant or apprentice, loaded with overwork. Receiving from the owner only miserable food and an unsettled shelter, the children ceased to be a burden for the family, losing their family comfort and growing up early. Such a path was especially usual and familiar for peasant families, who gave the boy service to the city.
It is about such a childhood fate that Makovsky tells. 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 Kalach to please her child. The woman looks with pity at the barefoot boy, dressed in a dirty apron - obviously, he works in some workshop and got a few minutes of free time to see his mother.
The artist’s pictorial style has also changed - there are no detailed and carefully written out details that distract attention and fragment the image. The gloomy color does not serve as an expression of joy from a short date, but as a reflection of the difficult mood of a lost childhood.
“On the Boulevard” (1886)
Makovsky often said that the artist had only a few minutes at his disposal, in which he had to have time to tell what the writer could take many pages. In the 1880s, the master achieved the highest mastery in creating such novel paintings. One of such peaks, both in terms of its artistic skill and content, is the painting “On the Boulevard”. During this period, paintings by V. E. Makovsky contain only two characters, but they are enough for a deep analysis of social problems of enormous proportions.
Before us is a small story about a dramatic break in the life of a young family. It seems that they come from a village where they were preparing to live, like their parents, in the usual labors and joys of a peasant way of life. But her husband was drawn to the city, for work, for a new, "beautiful" and interesting life. And after some time, the wife came to visit her husband. Now they are strangers. He managed to get saturated with the city spirit - he carefully monitors his appearance, holds a small accordion in his hands - it is clear that he likes the city most of all.
The girl is still very young, but she already understands that she can wait in the future, where she sees complete hopelessness. This painting by Vladimir Makovsky is still depressing; it is a peculiar reflection of the private drama of two little people, and it demonstrates the scale of the national problem of destroying the habitual way of life, which has developed over the centuries, and now is being destroyed as industrial centers develop.
Heritage
Vladimir Egorovich was distinguished by great industriousness and creative fecundity. 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 topics of various sizes - from everyday scenes to mass political actions - and embodied them with genuine artistic skill.
Historians of 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, negatively referring to the search for new topics and expressive means. But the scale of this figure in Russian art does not get smaller from this.