UNIT 5
On the Boulevard
Vladimir Makovsky (1846-1920) was born in Moscow into the family of an artist and grew up in the atmosphere of constant creative activities. From 1861 to 1866 he studied at Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. From 1888 on he exhibited with the Itinerants and finally joined the society of Travelling Art Exhibitions. The early period of Makovsky’s career is characterized by small canvases depicting scenes from the life of ordinary people.
His best known paintings devoted to the city life include “Bank Failure”, “Over my dead body” and “On the Boulevard”.
Makovsky's work was defined by a perpetual humor as well as blatant irony and scorn. During the seventies his paintings dealt primarily with small-town folk. His pictures, "The Grape-juice Seller" (1879), "Fruit-Preserving" (1876) and "The Congratulator" (1878) depict various scenes where the mood is finely conceived and almost laughter-inducing. Other works of his, such as "The Benefactor" (1874) and "The Convict" (1878) are profoundly socially-conscious. In them, Makovsky either criticizes the false sympathy of the aristocracy towards the poor, or draws attention to the oppression and persecution by the tsarist gendarmerie. In 1878, he became an academician.
In the eighties, during the time of Russian "democratic" painting, Makovsky produced some of his most valued works. In 1882, he was made professor at the Moscow Art School after the death of Vasili Perov. Some of Makovsky's greatest works of this period include "In the Ante-room of the Court of Conciliation" (1880), "The Released Prisoner" (1882), and "The Collapse of the Bank" (1881). From the end of the 1880s, Makovsky began to produce more gloomy works. Quintessential works of this period include "You Shall Not Go" (1892), and "On the Boulevard" (1888).