The Painting by Makovsky “Two mothers”


The collection of works by Vladimir Egorovich Makovsky in the Samara Art Museum is one of the most interesting among provincial museums. A large collection of paintings by Russian artists of the XIX-early XX century, which formed the basis of the picturesque collection of the museum, previously belonged to the family of Samara patrons Shikhobalov. Another merchant Shikhobalov was an artist Vladimir Makovsky. Almost every visit to St. Petersburg collector visited the painter’s workshop. All of Makovsky’s canvases from the collection of Shikhobalovs were exhibited at the exhibitions of the Wanderers, and, in the main, represent significant paintings, about which the press wrote.

The painting of Vladimir Makovsky, one of the most consistent of the old Wanderers, is dedicated to humble inhabitants, to people of “different ranks and ranks.” A careful study of the surrounding life gave the artist numerous themes for the works. And always the artist skillfully chose the moment of action when the human characters, the mutual relations of people, their social position are most fully revealed.

The plot of the painting “Two Mothers: The Mother and the Wife”, according to the author himself, was also taken from life. Vladimir Makovsky told Shikhobalov that a similar incident occurred in the family of his familiar artist. The fate of two women and a child is being decided. In the family, who brought up the boy, a woman struck by the warmth and care surrounding the people, to show her parental rights. In one minute, the happiness of the whole family is destroyed. Makovsky possessed a rare talent for penetrating the inner world of man, not even the most subtle spiritual movements escaped him.


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The Painting by Makovsky “Two mothers”