The painting Portrait of an Old Man by Vladimir Makovsky, created in 1901, belongs to the late period of the artist’s work. Makovsky, who was famous for painting the lowest classes of society, always advocated realism in painting. The hero of this canvas is portrayed skillfully but without any attempts to gloss over harsh reality. Every detail, from plain clothes and a wooden stick in his hands to the wrinkles on his face, adds up to create the image of a man who has gone through a lot in his long life.
The Portrait of an Old Man
Creation period
1901
Dimensions
41x26 cm
41×26 cm
41×26 cm
Technique
oil on canvas
Collection
Exhibition
3
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Vladimir Makovsky
The Portrait of an Old Man
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Vladimir Makovsky was born in 1846, seven years later than his brother Konstantin Makovsky, who was to become a famous artist, too. Their father Efim Makovsky was an accountant and amateur painter, one of the founders of the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture, and their mother, Lubov Makovskaya, was a teacher of singing at the Moscow Conservatory.
V.E. Makovsky, Self-portrait, 1905
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The Makovskys family house was a genuine cultural center for the Moscow artistic community, for the house was frequented by the composer Glinka, the famous writer Gogol, the actor Shepkin, artists Bryullov and Tropinin. Notably, Tropinin was the painter who gave Vladimir Makovsky his first lessons in fine arts.The Makovskys family house was a genuine cultural center for the Moscow artistic community, for the house was frequented by the composer Glinka, the famous writer Gogol, the actor Shepkin, artists Bryullov and Tropinin. Notably, Tropinin was the painter who gave Vladimir Makovsky his first lessons in fine arts.
While his brother Konstantin was a so called “salon artist”, most of Vladimir Makovsky’s works are linked with people from the lower classes of society. There’s nothing idyllic about the subjects he had been looking for in overnight stays and flea markets. “He visits all the almshouses… He knows all the outskirts of Moscow, all the slums, you”ll meet him at flea markets and folk festivals, at every ball, theater showing, concert, masquerade, on the boulevard”, wrote the critic Nikolai Alexandrov in his “Art Journal” about Vladimir Makovsky.
Vladimir Makovsky portrayals of peasants, drunkards, retired soldiers, the sick and the poor, were so credible, so true-to-life, that critics would later coin a new term to describe his style — Russian Critical Realism. Another example of this genre is the painting Lodging Home that depicts a drunken man dressed in rags, who is the founder of the genre of Russian romantic landscape, the author of the painting Rooks have arrived, artist Alexei Savrasov.
Vladimir Makovsky’s talent in depicting common folk was supplemented by extraordinary productivity. During his sixty-year career in art, he created more than one and a half thousand canvases, that are now housed in major museums in Russia and around the world.
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Images of old serfs in the paintings of V.E. Makovsky
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Bryansk Regional Art Museum
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The Portrait of an Old Man
Creation period
1901
Dimensions
41x26 cm
41×26 cm
41×26 cm
Technique
oil on canvas
Collection
Exhibition
3
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