Lot 2382 Dα

"Konstantin Makovsky not only appreciated art, but also the good life it afforded him. The Russian painter was a master of portraiture and genre painting, but he did not exploit his artistic potential to the full because he was too often preoccupied with enjoying his material wealth". This anonymous description in an internet article also applies to most of the Russian painter's works. And so also to this small masterpiece, in which the elderly gentleman certainly does not seem to be averse to the pleasures of life.
With humour and astute observation, Makowski depicts incidents from everyday life in the bourgeois society of his time in his mostly small-format paintings. Konstantin Makowski was born in Moscow in 1839 and came into contact with art when he was very young. His father associated with well-known artists and was a co-founder of the Moscow School of Painting, where Konstantin began his initial training as a child. Later he studied at the Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. His talent was recognised very early on and his artistic career progressed effortlessly. Unusual as his life was also Konstantin Makowski's death on 3rd September 1915 in Saint Petersburg. He died when his carriage collided with a tram.