Women and children most - portraits by Ivan Makarov

Anastasia Iosifovna Ushakova, circa 1866.

Ivan Kuzmich Makarov (23 March 1822, Arzamas - 9 April 1897, Saint Petersburg), Russian portrait painter. Born the son of Kuzma Alexandrovich Makarov, a serf artist of the Penza landowner Gorikhvostov, who had received his freedom in 1815. After completing his general education, from 1834 to 1841 the younger Makarov studied with his father at the Arzamas School of Painting, Russia's first provincial art school. On the basis of submissions he sent to the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1842, he was granted the title "Neklassnogo Artist" ("Free Artist"). In 1845, he moved to Saint Petersburg, where he studied until 1852 at the Academy under the history painter Alexey Markov, and soon won the patronage of the Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna. He then traveled to Berlin, Dresden, Munich, Venice, Bologna, and spent more than a year and a half in Rome before returning to St.Petersburg. On his return, he was made an academician, and he would be mostly resident in Petersburg, where he worked and taught, until his death at the age of seventy-five.

Detail of above.

Maria and Sofia Perovskaja, 1859.

Unknown Lady, circa 1860.

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, circa 1850s.

A Girl, 1852. Identified variously as the artist's daughter and Princess Evgenia Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg.

Evdokia Lyubimovna Khovrina née Engalycheva, 1862.

Girl [boy] With Dog, circa 1860s. Probably a portrait of Sergei Alexandrovich Stroganov.

Portrait of Unknown Girl, circa 1860s. Probably a portrait of Olga Alexandrovna Stroganova, sister of the above.

S. N. Rossova (?), circa 1860.

E. S. Kaznakova née Neklyudova, 1861.

Unknown Woman With Child, circa 1850s.

The Sheremetev children, circa 1880s:

Sergei Sergeievich.

Anna Sergeievna.

Peter Sergeievich.

Pavel Sergeievich.

Boris Sergeievich.

Varvara Pavlovna Sheremeteva née Princess Golitsyna (?), 1846.

Evdokia Alexeievna Tregubova, 1869.

Alexandra Mikhailovna Chelisheva née Verigina (?), circa 1865.

Two Children of the Tolstoy Family, 1854.

Ekaterina Feodorovna Tutcheva, circa 1850

Countess Daria Vasilievna Olsufieva, 1856.

Olga Pavlovna Stakhovich, circa 1850s.

Prince Alexander Vladimirovich Bariatinsky, circa 1850.

Empress Maria Alexandrovna, 1859.

Maria Alexandrovna Pushkina, 1849.

Unknown Woman, circa 1850s.

Portrait of a Young Girl, circa 1850s-60s. Possibly a portrait of Olga Pavlovna Shuvalova née Dolgorukova.

"Gubonina", circa 1870s.

Girl in a Boat, nd.

Baroness Sofia Nikolaievna Staal von Holstein née Shatilova, 1859.

The Arapova sisters, Olga and Varvara, circa 1860.

Portrait of an Unknown Woman, 1860.

Ivan Marakov is another artist I was completely unaware of. While looking for something else, I stumbled across an image of one of his paintings - the portrait of Anastasia Ushakova that leads off this post - and was very impressed. His flesh tones glow, and his handling of drapery and various textures is just superb. At his best, his work is very fresh, and recalls a happy blending of the portraiture of Winterhalter and Makarov's great compatriot Karl Briullov.

Portrait of Anastasia Iosifovna Ushakova. (Detail.) I find the play of light and shifts of tonality on the lace and pearls quite thrilling.