Portrait Of An Elegant Lady

Konstantin Makovsky prints bring the jewelled costumes, wedding feasts and rich colour of old Russia into your home. Makovsky was one of the most celebrated and best-paid Russian painters of the late 19th century, known for idealised historical scenes and glamorous portraits. Our collection of fine art prints covers his boyar scenes, society portraits, North African pictures and studies of Russian village life.

About Konstantin Makovsky

Konstantin Yegorovich Makovsky was born in Moscow on 2 July 1839. His father, Egor Makovsky, was a key figure in Moscow's art world and an amateur painter, and his mother was a composer. He entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture at 12, where he was influenced by Vasily Tropinin and Karl Bryullov. He thought for a time of becoming a composer, but chose painting.

In 1858 he entered the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg. In 1863 he and thirteen other students walked out in protest at the Academy's rules for the gold-medal competition, leaving without diplomas, an event known as the Revolt of the Fourteen. He then joined Ivan Kramskoi's Artel of Artists and in 1870 became a founding member of the Peredvizhniki, the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions, painting realist scenes such as The Widow (1865) and The Herring Seller (1867).

Travels in North Africa and Serbia in the mid-1870s changed his style, and he began to give more weight to colour and form. At the 1889 Paris World's Fair he won the Large Gold Medal for The Death of Ivan the Terrible, The Judgement of Paris and Demon and Tamara. By the end of the century he was one of the most respected and highly paid artists in Russia. He died in St Petersburg in September 1915, after his carriage collided with a tram.

Style and Subjects

Makovsky's best-known pictures show an idealised Russia of earlier centuries: boyars in brocade, brides in pearl headdresses, feasting tables loaded with gold and silver. He painted these with sumptuous colour and great attention to costume and texture.

His portraits of society women are elegant and glamorous, and some critics have seen his free, colourful handling as a forerunner of Russian Impressionism. His North African subjects, such as Schoolroom in Cairo, show the same love of colour and light.

Famous Works

• Peter the Great in His Studio (1870), Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. The tsar at work, an early historical subject.
• Schoolroom in Cairo. A lively scene from his travels in North Africa in the 1870s.
• A Boyar Wedding Feast (1883), Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, Washington. His most famous picture, a 17th-century wedding banquet in glowing colour.
• The Bride-Show of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1887), Russian Museum, St Petersburg. Young women presented to the tsar so he can choose a bride.
• The Russian Bride's Attire (1889), Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. A bride dressed by her family before the wedding.
• The Appeal of Minin (1896), Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum. Kuzma Minin calls the people of Nizhny Novgorod to defend Russia in 1611.
• Christmastide Divination (1905), Grodno State Museum of the History of Religion. Young women telling fortunes at Christmas.

Decorating with Makovsky Prints

Makovsky's boyar scenes are made for rooms with presence. A Boyar Wedding Feast suits a dining room, where its feasting table and warm reds and golds set a festive mood, and it sits well with dark wood, brass and rich fabrics.

His portraits of elegant women, such as Portrait of an Elegant Lady, work in a bedroom, dressing room or sitting room, and his village and North African scenes add colour to a study or hallway.

FAQ

What is Konstantin Makovsky's most famous painting?

A Boyar Wedding Feast (1883), now at Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens in Washington, D.C., is his best-known work.

What art movement was Konstantin Makovsky part of?

He was a founding member of the Peredvizhniki (Wanderers) and began as a realist, but his later historical scenes and portraits are often seen as academic art.

What was the Revolt of the Fourteen?

In 1863 Makovsky and thirteen other students left the Imperial Academy of Arts in protest at its rules for the gold-medal competition. It was a key moment in the rise of independent Russian art.

Where can I see Makovsky's paintings?

His work is in the Hermitage, the Russian Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery in Russia, Hillwood Estate in Washington, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Related Artists

• Ivan Kramskoi: founder of the Artel of Artists that Makovsky joined after 1863
• Karl Bryullov: painter who influenced him at the Moscow school
• Vasily Vereshchagin: Russian realist painter of the same generation
• Vasily Surikov: fellow Peredvizhniki painter of Russian history