Konstantin Makovsky wrote a lot of interesting paintings, which were very much liked by his contemporaries - it is no coincidence that he was the highest paid Russian artist at the time. About one of the most notable of his artwork, we will talk about in this article.
Makovsky was a member of the Peredvizhniki Society, and at one of the exhibitions in 1872 presented one of the most charming of his paintings “Children Running from a Thunderstorm”.
Children running from a thunderstorm
Then he was still young and willingly traveled across Russia, where he tried to capture everything he saw on sketches, which then finalized in his studio. Except that Makovsky's paintings differed strikingly from the typical artwork of the Itinerant artists - he agreed to depict the people, but his suffering - no way, no way. So is this painting, even though it reflects the moment for peasant children quite exciting - the girl went for mushrooms with her little brother, but suddenly found the clouds and is about to break out a summer thunderstorm, to catch which in a clear field is dangerous to life.
Reaper
Makovsky perfectly managed to convey the feeling of an impending thunderstorm, due to the beautifully painted sky, clearly felt gusts of wind and the anxious look of the girl herself. By the way, the story of the creation of this painting is also interesting, showing that sometimes a truly outstanding painting is a matter of chance.
Peasant children
Makovsky wrote another sketch in nature, when he was surrounded by village children - they were very interested to look at the city man, who is engaged in business unseen and strange. One girl was braver than the others and asked what he was doing. Makovsky explained, and at the same time offered to draw and her. Agreed “for tomorrow”, but the next day there were even more children, and that girl the artist never saw. He asked her little brother where her sister was, and he replied that they had gone for mushrooms, but suddenly there was a thunderstorm and a heavy downpour, her sister with him on her shoulders climbed over a flimsy bridge and accidentally slipped, well at least she was able to hold her brother, and he avoided falling into the cold water. But the girl herself was less lucky - she caught a cold and is now lying at home, sick, she has a fever and can't pose yet.
The herring maid
Makovsky went to her parents, offered them some medicine, which he had previously stocked up before traveling to the village, good thing he was a wealthy and educated man. Soon the girl recovered, and Makovsky had a great idea for the painting.
It turned out everything as it should, including masterfully built composition - some critics noted that it is no coincidence that William Bouguereau in his painting “Pretty burden” in 1895, shamelessly used the compositional idea Makovsky, only in his own way and in the style of salon academism.
William Bouguereau. A lovely burden.
Drawer Bouguereau was remarkable, but because of the abundance of paintings created by him, not all of them were characterized by a constructed plot and original composition, sometimes he just borrowed it from others, although this did not prevent contemporaries to consider him a very respected artist, for whose artwork lined up.
But let's return to Makovsky. He later really wanted to find this girl and show her what he ended up with, but for business, the next favorable orders and love affairs all was somehow not enough time.
A girl in a scarf
But it turned out to be a remarkable painting, quite in the spirit of the artist's work, where the main thing - beauty and decorativeness, not the truth of life. It is no coincidence that peasant children in Makovsky's paintings, although dressed in simple clothes, but well-fed and healthy, with a blush on their cheeks, and very pleasant in appearance - these paintings, unlike Perov's “Troika” can be hung in a secular living room. Such creativity attracted rich customers, and they sincerely liked Makovsky's idealized Russia, which remained only in his paintings.
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