Provenance
Private Italian collection
Sale Ketterer Kunst GmbH & Co KG, May 14, 2013, lot 724
Private American collection
Konstantin Makovsky, the older brother of Vladimir Makovsky and one of the founding member of the Wanderers, was considered among the most fashionable artists of the fin-de-siècle Russia. His elegant portraits were in high demand among Russian nobility, wealthy merchants and members of high society. As his contemporary painter Pavel Dzhogin wrote: “Makovsky is utterly spoilt for portrait commissions, and what clients – all the princes and barons”.
The artist’s high-ranking clients appreciated the virtuosity of his paintings, combining “the formal and the intimate, the majestic and the sentimental (…), remarkable for their superb technique, excellent detail (…) rich and decorative colours, the freedom and energy of the brushwork” (E. Nesterova, K.Makovsky, St Petersburg, 2003, p.268).
