Nikolay Makovsky was a Russian painter and one of the founding members of the Society for Traveling Art Exhibitions. He was the brother of the famous artists Konstantin and Vladimir Makovsky. Nikolay studied at the Moscow Palace Architectural School and the Imperial Academy of Arts. After graduating from the Academy in 1866, he joined the Ministry of the Imperial Court as an architectural assistant but later left this position to pursue painting. In 1872, the Academy awarded him the title of a class artist of the third degree for “View of the Church in the Village of Dyakovo, Moscow Governorate”. A year later, he was promoted to the status of a class artist of the second degree.

Nikolay Makovsky was a master of landscape, genre, and history painting. In 1874, together with his younger brother Konstantin, he traveled to Ottoman Egypt. There, he created a series of paintings featuring architectural views of Cairo. In his works, this Egyptian city is colorful and exotic. These works represented orientalism — a trend in Western European art of the 19th and 20th centuries. It was inspired by Eastern legends, literature, and art, as well as research and personal experience.

The surge of interest in the East began with the French campaign in Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte. During this campaign, the army was accompanied by researchers and painters. Orientalists borrowed the exotic subjects, motifs, and stylistics of oriental art, the dynamics of its compositions, and the pure and bright colors. The Makovsky brothers were one of the first Russian artists to turn to this movement. Nikolay Makovsky is also known for his views of ancient Moscow architecture which he depicted with great verisimilitude. Although he is less well-known to modern art lovers than his brothers, his contribution to Russian culture is difficult to overestimate. Nikolay Makovsky died at the age of 45 in St. Petersburg.