The biography of the artist Makovsky Konstantin today is obscured by his distinguished brother Vladimir - a famous representative of the Wanderers. However, Konstantin left a noticeable mark on art, being a serious, independent painter.
Makovsky family
The surname Makovsky is well known in Russian art. The father of the family, Yegor Ivanovich Makovsky, was a famous artist in Moscow, an amateur artist. He organized a “Full-time school” for painters, which later became known as the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.
A creative spirit always reigned in the family and it is not surprising that all three children of Yegor Ivanovich became artists. The father’s friends often visited the house — artists Karl Bryullov and Vasily Tropinin; one could also meet here the writer Gogol, the actor Shchepkin, and the composer Glinka. Literary and musical evenings were constantly arranged in the family, and disputes were held about art. All this influenced the formation of children. The adult Konstantin Makovsky said that his success in painting he owed exclusively to his father, who was able to settle in him an indestructible love of art.
The family had three children: the eldest son Konstantin, the daughter of Alexander and the youngest - Vladimir. The wealth in the family was modest, but the reigning spirit of art fully compensated for all domestic inconveniences.
Childhood Konstantin
Since childhood, Konstantin Makovsky was immersed in art, in fact, he did not know any other life, and he was destined to choose the path of the painter. All the children in the family started drawing very early.
Kostya, as the first child in the family, began by being with his father and his friends, when they discussed painting and their plans, showed sketches and paintings. All this formed the aesthetic views and interests of the boy.
Finding a craft
In 1851, Konstantin Makovsky entered his father's school of painting, sculpture and architecture. His mentors there were V. Tropinin, M. Scotty, S. Zaryanko, and Mokritsky. Here for seven years, an artist was formed from a boy with his own, original outlook on the world and taught him the basics of pictorial art.
In school, he was the first student, received all possible awards. In 1858, Konstantin entered the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg - the best educational institution in the field of art in the Russian Empire. During his studies, he regularly exhibited his works at the annual exhibitions of the Academy and even received a Grand Gold Medal for his work “Agents of Dmitry the Pretender kill the son of Boris Godunov.”
In 1862, Makovsky began to seek his own path in art, since academicism seemed to him boring and outdated.
The path in art
Konstantin Makovsky (paintings, a biography of the artist are presented in our article) is looking for his own style, wants to express his inner world. In 1863, he, along with thirteen other artists selected to participate in the competition for the Grand Gold Medal of the Academy of Arts, refused to paint a painting on a theme approved by academics.
He had to leave the school, and Makovsky was never able to get a diploma of education. This event became known as the "riot of fourteen." The protest was that the artists wanted to get freedom and write work on a free topic, but the Academy did not want to meet them. In fact, this was a rebellion against the shackles of academism and was a sign of the emerging new school of realism, in which Konstantin Makovsky will play a prominent role.
In 1863, the artist joined the group of I. Kramskoy and worked in the emerging genre of household painting. In 1870, Makovsky became one of the initiators and ideological inspirers of the creation of the Association of Traveling Artists and worked hard to describe the scenes of everyday life.
He exhibited works both at academic exhibitions and in company with the Wanderers. In the 80s, Makovsky became a very popular author of salon portraits and paintings on historical subjects. And in 1889 he received the Great Gold Medal at an art exhibition in Paris for a series of works.
The object of Makovsky’s brush was historical scenes, the life of the people, life. With love and ethnographic accuracy, he writes out the costumes and furnishings of the characters. In the late 80s, the artist increasingly turns to historical subjects, writes large detailed paintings, for example, “Boyarsky Wedding Feast in the 17th Century,” which are very popular among the public and critics. He also created many portraits of various people.
The creative heritage of Konstantin Makovsky has about a hundred paintings, many of which are large, epic canvases (today they are scattered across private and museum collections around the world). In addition, he participated in the design of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.
Collector
Konstantin Makovsky, whose paintings are now the object of attention of collectors, he himself was a great collector. He inherited this hobby from his father, who loved a wide variety of objects of art and antiquity.
The idea of the collection was formulated by the artist in the words: "beautiful antiquity." Carried away by historical subjects, he collected various utensils and furnishings, costumes, as well as everything that attracted the refined taste of the artist.
During the period of fascination with the peasant topic, Makovsky travels a lot around the Russian outback, buying up household items and clothes. A trip to the East added to the collection a large number of items of oriental life, carpets, jewelry and costumes. As a result, by the 80s the artist’s apartment was more like a museum than a person’s home.
Collection items often served as the basis for the creation of paintings. Thus, in the work “Boyarsky Wedding Feast in the 17th Century”, critics note the tiniest coincidence of details with the historical costume and the atmosphere of that time. By the beginning of the 20th century Makovsky was one of the largest collectors in Russia, and his activities led to a fashion for the general craze for collecting among bohemians and bourgeois.
Konstantin Egorovich was very proud of his collection, he was happy to show it and give things for various exhibitions. After the artist’s death, an auction was organized at which 1,100 items were put up, as a result of which the widow gained more than half a million rubles, and things were sold to collections of private individuals and museums. But, unfortunately, the integrity of the meeting was violated, and Makovsky's many years of work went to dust.
Best work
Konstantin Makovsky, the best paintings, biography, which is still becoming the object of study of art critics, left a great legacy. Among his most famous works are: “The Death of Ivan the Terrible”, “Feast at the Boyar Morozov”, “Bulgarian Martyrs”, “Minin at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair”, “Choice of the Bride by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich”.
Private life of the artist
Konstantin Makovsky traveled a lot, lived for some time in Paris, traveled to Africa three times, and all this enriched his work, in which one can find features of the emerging modernism. For his artistic merits, Makovsky was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor and St. Anne.
The artist was married three times. The first wife died of tuberculosis, and from the second he divorced. In total, he had nine children, among whom are artists and cultural figures.
September 30, according to the new style of 1915, a tram shot down a man - that is how Konstantin Makovsky ended his journey. The life and work of the artist remained in the history of Russian painting as an important page in the formation of realism.