The present painting reveals the influence of the renowned Konstantin Makovsky, who was Alexander’s uncle. The composition resembles that of Konstantin Makovsky’s From the Everyday Life of the Russian Boyar in the Late XVII Century, one of the elder Makovsky’s best paintings from the 1860s.
Born to a famous artistic dynasty, Alexander Makovsky was also the son of Vladimir Makovsky and the grandson of the collector Yegor Makovsky. He studied painting at the School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture in Moscow with Vasily Polenov and Vladimir Makovsky and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in St.Petersburg under Ilya Repin. In 1893, he joined Peredvizhniki (Wanderers), a group of realist painters and Russia’s first independent artistic society.
Alexander Makovsky’s works are found in the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the Russian Museum in St.Petersburg and numerous other museums.
