Artist Vladimir Makovsky created Before a Declaration of Love (The Date) in 1898-1900. The painting came to the museum from the private collection of Samara merchant Lavrenty Arzhanov.
Before a Declaration of Love (The Date)
Creation period
1898-1900
Dimensions
83x118 cm
Technique
Canvas, oil
Collection
Exhibition
20
Open in app#1
Vladimir Makovsky
Before a Declaration of Love (The Date)
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The canvas features a couple in love — a student and a young lady. They are in the forest on the Karelian Isthmus. The two in love are standing among tall fir trees and boulders, which are covered with green moss. Each of the characters is busy with what he or she is doing. The student is pensively looking at the cane he is holding in his hands. The girl is thoughtfully tearing off the petals of a chamomile, waiting for the beginning of a long-awaited declaration.
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This was not the first time that Vladimir Makovsky depicted the moment of a declaration of love. He painted the picture A Declaration of Love. At the Piano in 1881 which is similar to The Date in terms of the plot and style.
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The painting depicts a young man in the student uniform of the late XIXth century. He is wearing black trousers and a light gray shortened jacket — tuzhurka, from under which a white Kosovorotka (Russian national shirt) is showing. The double-breasted tuzhurka, made of woven felt, has two rows of six golden buttons featuring a double-headed eagle. The student has a forage cap on his head.
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The girl is wearing a light blue dress in the fashion of the time. It is decorated with numerous ruffles and white embroidery. The balloon sleeves, wide in the shoulders, get narrower in the elbow area. The dress gets wider closer to the bottom, acquiring a bell shape.
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Episodes of everyday life were Vladimir Makovsky’s favourite theme. He painted many small-sized genre paintings, most often depicting two characters. The plots of the painter’s canvases are called literary: when people look at them, they can imagine a complete story. The viewer can see what happened to the protagonists before the moment captured by the painting and what will happen later. Vladimir Makovsky masterfully conveyed the emotional state of his characters. With the help of the setting, interior items and landscape, he revealed the mood and feelings of his characters.
Vladimir Makovsky was born in 1846 in Moscow. His father, Egor Makovsky, was one of the founders of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. A creative atmosphere reigned in the family of the would-be artist with well-known writers, musicians and actors often visiting the family. Vladimir Makovsky displayed his painting ability early in life. His painting teacher was the famous portraitist Vassily Tropinin. In 1861, Vladimir Makovsky entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He soon joined the itinerant artists, who advocated a realistic depiction of the life of a ‘little man’.
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In 1893, Vladimir Makovsky became a professor at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Having moved to the capital, he often dedicated his works to the people who fought against the tsarist regime. His later paintings illustrate the development of the revolutionary movement in Russia.
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Before a Declaration of Love (The Date)
Creation period
1898-1900
Dimensions
83x118 cm
Technique
Canvas, oil
Collection
Exhibition
20
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