Table of contents:
- Female images in painting
- Julia Makovskaya (Letkova)
- "Portrait of Yulia Makovskaya" by Ilya Repin
- “Portrait of the Artist's Wife. Julia Makovskaya"
Video: Than the young wife of the artist Makovsky won the heart of the great Repin and other Russian painters
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the portrait of a woman became one of the leading genres in the visual arts. Artists were looking for “ugly beauty” (because individuality, or, in other words, personality, was valued most of all). A similar personality with a rich soul can be called Yulia Makovskaya (nee Letkova), who was the beloved muse and wife of the famous artist Konstantin Makovsky. Many artists glorified the charming image of this girl with their canvases.
Female images in painting
Female images in Russian fine arts draw an obvious parallel with Russian literary characters and plots. The women's issue is becoming more and more relevant, especially when it comes to issues related to education and work, motherhood and family law. It was these problems that underlay the novels of Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev and Nikolai Chernyshevsky. Society did not remain indifferent to the protection of women's freedom. The Bestuzhev courses, organized in St. Petersburg in 1878 at the initiative of women themselves, gave impetus to the development of women's education. After the February Revolution of 1917, they received equal rights with men.
Meanwhile, at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, artists continued to pay attention to the appearance of a woman, primarily unusual and sometimes exotic beauty and intricate clothing. The portrait of a woman became one of the leading genres in the visual arts, and artists tried to find not a beautiful appearance, but an attractive personality. Such a special girl in the society of that time was Yulia Makovskaya (nee Letkova), who was the beloved muse and wife of the famous artist Konstantin Makovsky. Many painters sang the beauty of this girl on their canvases.
Julia Makovskaya (Letkova)
The most beloved model of the artist, his friend and like-minded person for many years was his second wife, Julia. 16-year-old Yulia Letkova (this is her maiden name) Makovsky met in 1874 at a ball in the Marine Corps. The adorable girl arrived at that time in St. Petersburg to enter the conservatory. She had a talent: Julia had a lyric soprano. The 35-year-old artist fell in love with a girl with no memory, and even the 20-year age difference did not become an obstacle to their union. The couple got married on January 22, 1875. "The Angel of Inexpressible Beauty" - this is how Repin enthusiastically called her in his memoirs, who later painted one of the most beautiful female images.
"Portrait of Yulia Makovskaya" by Ilya Repin
The outstanding "Portrait of Yulia Makovskaya" by Ilya Repin comes from the collection of Nicholas Lynn, a renowned collector of Russian and Soviet porcelain and owner of The Winter Place gallery in London. It is believed that Nureyev was the original owner of the portrait, which was later sold to the father of the current owner. Repin had mastered pictorial expression to perfection by the 1880s, and this decade was a period of fruitful creativity and maturity of the artist. During these years, the multifaceted talent of Repin as a portrait painter manifested itself, his ability to capture the essence and individuality of plots. During his long creative career, he painted many portraits of women, but only in some of them he allows himself to be a poet. The portrait of Yulia Letkova-Makovskaya is just such a picture, where Repin demonstrates his ability to create art that bewitches the viewer.
From the diaries of Yulia's sister, Ekaterina Letkova, you can learn about the creation of this portrait and the personality of the model. In the estate of Repin "Penaty" there are written memoirs of Ekaterina Letkova about her first meeting with Ilya Repin, who was then painting this portrait: “A velvet jacket, long hair and an unshaven beard - the ideal image of an artist of the 80s. I saw this Repin in 1881. And for the first time I saw Repin at the easel in the studio of Konstantin Makovsky, where he painted a portrait of my sister Yulia Pavlovna Makovskaya. The tones of the painting were unusual for his portraits of women: all in black, with a large black hat and a thick shadow falling over his eyes. Ilya Efimovich found something very intriguing in the combination of youthful beauty, bright eyes and cheerfulness with a gloomy stern dress. Sometimes he jumped away from the canvas, repeating a word to himself with pleasure, and then resumed his concentrated work on the picture."
Depicting a model that contemporaries described as one of the most charming women in Petersburg, Repin creates a portrait of mood, emphasizing the aesthetics of his artistic language and the beauty of the image. The pictorial language of the portrait is saturated with the vibration of the air, which gives the brushstroke a fluidity and clarity in the image of the subject.
“Portrait of the Artist's Wife. Julia Makovskaya"
The personality of the model is confirmed by comparing this work with other portraits of Yulia Makovskaya, made by the model's husband Konstantin Makovsky in the late 1870s and 1880s. The most famous of them is “Portrait of the Artist's Wife. Y. Makovskaya”is dated 1881. This canvas depicts the young beauty of St. Petersburg as radiant and carefree, sitting on a chair in a bright red dress, decorated with a festive blue bow and white ruffles.
The young woman in the portrait bewitchingly conveys a charming state of bliss, as well as femininity and pleasant moodiness. A flowing dress, lush ruffles, slightly tousled hair, parted lips, an absent-minded look, a smooth neck, relaxed arms and legs in elegant pointed toe shoes - everything is there. This portrait occupies a special place among all the images of Yulia Makovskaya, attracting with the perfection of the model, the beauty of the painting and the skill of execution.
Recommended:
Who in life was the "Kustodian merchant's wife" and other little-known facts about the life and work of the beloved student of the great Repin
Boris Kustodiev occupies an honorable place among the artists of the early twentieth century. A talented genre painter, master of psychological portrait, book illustrator and decorator, Kustodiev created masterpieces in almost all works of art
What rebellion did the tsar's favorite and the most expensive artist of his time and other interesting facts about Konstantin Makovsky take part in?
Konstantin Makovsky is a Russian painter born into a family of artists, one of the richest, most fashionable and successful painters of his time. Interestingly, Makovsky was a favorite of women and a favorite painter of Tsar Alexander II himself. His work sold out like hotcakes. Makovsky received all possible awards. But why were the critics indignant?
Father and son paint wild animals: lions, bears, wolves and other animals on the canvases of animal painters
The world of wild nature is mysterious and unique, and we know about it only thanks to the painstaking work of its researchers. Father and son Montana animal artists, Daniel and Adam Smith, also contribute to the wild animals that live in the wild. Their art carries not only artistic value, but also raises topical environmental issues
Realistic landscapes of the 19th century artist Ivan Velts, who did not remain in the shadow of the great painters of that great era
The nineteenth century brought up and gave the world a whole galaxy of talented and famous artists of Russian painting. Savrasov, Shishkin, Levitan, Aivazovsky in the landscape genre were unsurpassed brilliant painters, whom it was almost impossible to reach. And in that era it was very difficult to prove oneself as a talented and original artist against such a background. However, the landscape painter Ivan Avgustovich Veltz, who left a very bright mark in Russian fine art, succeeded with interest
"Love for three", a wife won at cards, a passion for hunting dogs and other oddities in the life of the poet Nekrasov
The personality of the Russian poet classic Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov is contradictory, like all his work. And what can we say about his personal life, which caused constant bewilderment and indignation not only of society, but also of his closest friends and relatives. The poet's extraordinary nature, capable of unpredictable actions, which few would have dared to, to this day arouses the interest of not only critics and connoisseurs of the writer's work, but also uninitiated readers