Mother and daughter 1886

Vladimir Makovsky painted this oil on canvas, Mother and Daughter, sometime in the late 19th century. The women, likely peasants, stand in a field outside a village and it captures a tender moment between the two. Makovsky was part of a movement of Russian realist artists who sought to depict the everyday lives of ordinary people. Their work often contained social commentary. In the decades before the 1905 revolution, the Russian art establishment—centered on the Imperial Academy of Arts— was seen as overly formal and detached from the realities of Russian life. Makovsky and others formed groups like The Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions to challenge these institutions, and to offer alternative spaces to exhibit socially conscious art that could be seen outside the capital. The figures in Mother and Daughter suggest the hardships of rural life at the time. The image is a study of poverty, family, and the bonds that hold communities together. The role of art historians is to uncover these layers of meaning, drawing on archival material and other research resources to cast light on the social contexts of art.