Study for the painting The Death of Ivan the Terrible (1888; whereabouts unknown)
It was not just masters of realistic art, with their yearning to depict complex psychological collisions, who were interested in subjects taken from the time of Ivan the Terrible, but also people involved in salon art. In 1888 Konstantin Makovsky, the creator of spectacular pictures of boyar life, painted a large canvas, The Death of Ivan the Terrible, that was full of external drama and stood out in its masterful depiction of the historical surroundings. This study from the Russian Museum’s collection is for the figure of the Tsar’s old, blind nurse, and according to eyewitness accounts by contemporaries her image was probably the most expressive in the finished picture.

Makovsky Konstantin

Makovsky, Konstantin Egórovich
1839, Moscow — 1915, Petrograd
Painter, draughtsman, watercolourist; portraitist, genre artist, author of painting on historical themes. Studied under Mikhail Scotti, Sergei Zaryanko at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1851–1858), under Alexei Markov at the Imperial Academy of Arts
(1858–1863). Minor gold medal (1862) for Agents of the False Dmitry Kill the Son of Boris Godunov. Contributed to exhibitions (from 1860). One of “the rebellious fourteen” (1863). Academician (1867), professor (1869). Member of the St Petersburg Artel of Artists (1863). Founding member of the Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions (1870) and the St Petersburg Society of Artists (1898).