Tchaikovsky
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Vladimir Makovskii (1846–1920)

Vladimir Makovskii

Russian artist and professor (b. 26 January/7 February 1846 in Moscow; d. 21 February 1920 in Petrograd), born Vladimir Egorovich Makovskii (Владимир Егорович Маковский, Vladimir Egorovič Makovskii, Vladimir Yegorovich Makovsky).

From 1861 to 1866 Makovskii studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (where he later taught from 1882 to 1894), gaining silver medals for his paintings in 1865 and 1866. He was elected to the Russian Academy of Arts in 1873, and continued to teach while producing scenes mainly depicting the lives of ordinary Russians. From 1894 until 1918 he was a professor at the Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, becoming its rector in 1895.

In November and December 1882 Makovskii painted, in Moscow, a portrait of Tchaikovsky which had been commissioned by Pavel Tret'iakov, and although the composer found the four sittings for this painting very tiresome, he observed: "Still, this portrait is in my view a complete success" [1]. Unfortunately, the location of this portrait is unknown and no prints were made of it either [2]. During his stay in Odessa at the beginning of 1893 Tchaikovsky informed Makovskii that a local artist, Nikolai Kuznetsov, had produced a portrait of him which "in terms of its expression, lifelikeness, and authenticity really is remarkable" [3]. If Makovskii's earlier portrait were to be discovered some day, it would be interesting to see how it compared with this masterpiece by the Odessan painter!

Tchaikovsky's correspondence with Vladimir Makovskii:

• 1 letter from Tchaikovsky to Vladimir Makovskii has survived, dating from 1893.