Vladimir Makovsky (1846-1920)

VE Makovsky was born in Moscow into a family well-known artists, one of the founders of the MUZHV - MUZHVZ - E I. Makovsky.

Since childhood the boy (and his brother, later also known painter K. Makovsky) surrounded by artistic atmosphere, he constantly saw the famous masters who visited his father's house heard them arguing and talk about art, imbued with thoughts of his high purpose and so it is very early felt his calling.

The first painting lessons Makovsky took from B. Tropinin and fifteen years under his leadership painted "A boy selling kvas" (1861).

In the years 1861-66. Makovsky was in MUZHV - Moscow School of Painting, where he received a good training under the guidance of artists ES Sorokin and C. K. Zaryanko .
 Makovsky After graduation went to St. Petersburg and entered the Academy of Arts, where he successfully studied.

In 1869, for the painting "Peasant boys in a night guard horses (Night)" is largely in tune with the story of Turgenev "Bezhin meadow", he won a gold medal and the title of the artist 1st degree.
in 1870 at the exhibition Moscow Art Lovers Society was represented by his painting "In the waiting room at the doctor," where a gentle humor depicts a priest, enthusiastically explaining his old lady "true" recipe for a toothache. Attention to detail (painted carefully pier-glass table and lithograph on the wall, silk long robe and checkered woolen shawl old lady) and, most importantly, warm irony reminiscent of the tradition of P. Fedotov . The painting was a success and the fame of the author predicted a genre painter. Interest in the "little man", its sorrows and joys of today has become a leitmotif of the artist.

The same sense of humor pervades his paintings early 1870's. "Fans of nightingales singing", "knuckles", "Getting a pension," "Church Singer." They were all small in size, written ^ smooth painting style. Gradually comic coloring pictures Makovsky is somewhat different. They appear alarming note reminds the viewer of human injustice, the humiliated and insulted. In the paintings "Visit the Poor" (1874), "Squash" (1875), "In front" (1884), "Waiting. Stockade I" (1875), "rooming house" (1889), and other artist shows a wretched life of the urban poor , striking contrasts between poverty and affluence.

In 1879, Makovsky created the painting "Condemned" where with obvious sympathy portrayed a young narodovoltsyamy coming out of the courtroom, accompanied by gendarmes. Woe to his poor old parents only emphasized the dramatic nature of the work, which, according to Vladimir Stasov, "dug deep and strong modern life."