![Vladimir Egorovich Makovsky - A Country Market [1895]](http://c5.staticflickr.com/6/5714/30427137236_57b2719011_b.jpg)
Vladimir Egorovich Makovsky (Moscow, January 26, 1846 - Petrograd, February 21, 1920) was a Russian painter, art collector, and teacher. Makovsky's work was defined by a perpetual humour as well as blatant irony and scorn. During the seventies his paintings dealt primarily with small-town folk. In them, Makovsky either criticises the false sympathy of the aristocracy towards the poor, or draws attention to the oppression and persecution by the tsarist gendarmerie. In 1878, he became an academician. After the 1917 October Revolution, Makovsky helped carry over the realist traditions to the early stages of Socialist Realism.
[Sotheby’s, London - Watercolour heightened with white over pencil on paper laid on board, 39 x 54.5cm]
