Vladimir Makovsky, Unidentified Genre Scene (A Noble Assignment?), 1893 – 1895

Signed in Cyrillic and dated at lower left

Oil on canvas

16 1/2 x 11 5/16 in. (42 x 29 cm)

Inv. no. ab_7777

Vladimir Makovsky (1846 – 1920) was born into an artistic family. His father Egor Makovsky (1802 – 1886) was a portraitist and one of the founders of an important Moscow art school. He and most of his siblings became artists. While his brother Konstantin Makovsky (1839 – 1915) is the best known, his sister Alexandra (1837 – 1915) and brother Nikolai (1841 – 1886) were also accomplished painters.

Together with his brothers, he was one of the founding members of the Society for Itinerant Art Exhibitions, or the Peredvizhniki, a Russian word meaning itinerants or wanderers. While there were some variations, the group had banded together in support of Realist depictions of contemporary life in Russia, thus rejecting the Academy of Art’s officially prescribed allegorical works, scenes inspired by the Classical world, and patriotic battle paintings. While his older brother Konstantin turned to often romanticized images of the life of the boyar class in seventeenth-century Russia, Vladimir Makovsky retained his focus on daily life, particularly the financial sufferings of the poor or the foibles of the middle class.

Vladimir Makovsky’s title for this painting is currently unknown, so the subject remains undetermined. Two men in frock coats are seen in an office; the one at left seems to carry himself in a manner suggesting a lower status, particularly in comparison to the other man who wears a cross of the Order of St. George at his collar and a red and white sash, possibly of the Order of St. Stanislas. His mutton chop sideburns, long out of fashion, might tell us that the event took place well before the work was painted or that the figure on the right is out of the step with the contemporary world. Presumably the paper held in his hands is key to the narrative, but it is hidden from our eyes.