The full title of this painting is Two Mothers. Foster Mother and Natural Mother. Vladimir Makovsky, who was proficient in genre painting, created it in 1905-1906. Before the 1917 Revolution, the author’s friends — Shikhobalov family, merchants and patrons of arts from Samara — were the owners. The artist often took topics for his work from real life, and this is true about Two Mothers as well. Vladimir Makovsky referred to similar story that happened in the family of an artist he knew.

Vladimir Makovsky said: “The painting is not a word, it gives you one minute, and everything should be clear within this minute. If this is not so, there is no painting”. In Makovsky’s painting, the future destiny of a little boy is being shaped. His natural mother after giving birth left her son in an orphanage, and a well-to-do family took the boy and raised him. The foster parents adopted the baby with great warmth and lavished attention and care on him.

The painting depicts the visit of an unknown woman, who happens to be the natural mother of the boy disturbing the family idyll. The unexpected guest bursts into the room interrupting the family breakfast. Her clothes tell us about her peasant origin. This woman is wearing a dark homespun skirt with a brindled apron showing from beneath. A bright red kerchief is covering her head. This peasant woman is holding a small canvas sack in her left hand.

In a masterly fashion, Vladimir Makovsky conveyed the appalment and fear of the little boy sheepishly clinging to his foster mother, who has already become his family. The woman appearing in the house is just a stranger for him. The only person who is keeping calm is the head of the family. Contrary to his wife and foster son, he is sure that the natural mother will not succeed in taking the boy away. His firmness is contrasting to the tension predominating in the painting.

Vladimir Makovsky was born in Moscow in 1846. His father was one of the founders of Moscow School of Arts, Sculpture and Architecture. There was always a creative atmosphere in the family of the future artist: painters, musicians and actors were frequent guests there. Makovsky demonstrated his talents in arts in his early years. His first teacher of painting was the famous Russian portrait painter Vasily Tropinin. In 1861, Makovsky became a student of Moscow School of Arts, Sculpture and Architecture. Soon he became a member of the Itinerants partnership, which promoted realistic depiction of the life of ordinary people. Genre paintings by Makovsky are the most typical pieces of art of this partnership.