Portrait of Marina Makovskaya
1912
- Canvas, tempera, pastel. 194 х 97
- Ж-1938
Received in 1919 from the Sergei Makovsky collection, Petrograd
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Location in museum
The Benois Wing
Open the panorama of the hall in the virtual tour
Room 70 - Period Late 19th century – Early 20th century
- CategoryPortrait
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Marina Erastovna Makovskaya (née Ryndina, first married name Khodasevich) (1886–1973): Wife of the art critic and editor of the Apollo periodical Sergei Makovsky.
Many leading Russian masters turned to official portraiture at the turn of the century. Some regarded it as a chance to incarnate their artistic concepts in a large style; others sought historical retrospectives within the context of the stylistic assimilation of the art of the past. Alexander Golovin offers his own version of an official commissioned portrait. As in many of his works, the roles of the lines and the silhouette are of primary importance. Accorded the most important place in the planar-decorative system, the contours and lines organise the field of the canvas, bringing out the artificial nature of the background. The modelled face of the sitter stands out from the flat space of the picture, commanding attention like an original relief.