Porträt einer eleganten Dame mit Fächer. 1883.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated lower left. 121 x 74 cm (47,6 x 29,1 in).
Verso with old shipping labels.

The painting will be included into the fortcoming Makovskij monography by Dr. Elena Nesterova. We are grateful for her kind support in cataloging this lot.

PROVENANCE: Private collection Italy.

Konstantin Makovskij was born in Moscow in 1839. He grew up in a family that was a cultural meeting place. His father Jegor Makovskij was among the founding members of the Moscow University of Arts, where Konstantin Makovskij began his training in arts in 1857. Afterwards he transferred to the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. He made a portrait of tsar Alexander II. when he was still a student, in the following he received many commissions. The gifted young artist embarked on an independent career without an official diploma. He shows works in many academy exhibitions, in 1867 he was given an academic degree belatedly and in 1869 he was appointed professor. After he got married he traveled to Paris with his wife in 1875 and was in a circle of artists around Ilja Repin and Alexei Harlamov. In the following years Makovskij alternately lived in St. Petersburg and Paris, he traveled Europe extensively and also on and of visited rural parts of Russia. As a history and genre painter, but especially as an outstanding portraitist of the Russian aristocracy, Makovskij style was all in line with contemporary taste and earned him great success. His works were regularly shown on international exhibitions and were awarded the most renowned prizes. Critics were particularly enthused by the Ruben –like coloring and put Makovskij‘s portraits at one level with Mackart and Durant.

The portrait of an elegant lady with fan is in line with a number of female portraits in Makovskij‘s oeuvre. The artist attained his personal style from an early point on, the so-called salon portrait, which combines general formal aspects of the genre with a sensitive psychological description of the depicted person. With great technical mastery, a free and strong stroke of the brush and harmoniously balanced colors he depicts the atmosphere with a great love for details. It was especially his wonderful empathic portraits that made for Makovskij‘s artistic success and fame that reached far beyond Russian borders.

At the age of 76 Makovskij died in St. Petersburg in 1915 as the consequence of an accident, a death that marked the end of an artistic and social epoch in Russia. At this time the city was already named Petrograd, Europe was shaken by WW I and the Russian Revolution was just around the corner. What has survived, however, is Makovskij‘s great oeuvre, which still today fascinates the observers with its brilliant colors and a great love for the detail. (After a text excerpt about the artist’s life by Elena Nesterova). [CB].