Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky

Marina Flamant, Paris (the artist's granddaughter)
Sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, October, 7, 1977, lot 137, illustrated
Private Collection (Acquired from the above)

Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky was a founding member of the Wanderers, a group of artists who broke away from the St. Petersburg Academy in 1863 in protest of the Academy's strict adherence to the rigid style and subject matter of the classical tradition.  Makovsky is renowned for his skillful portraits and masterful genre scenes dealing with medieval Russian history, particularly of the Russian Boyar class.

Ophelia, Shakespeare's tragic heroine from Hamlet, was a theme popular among many European artists.  Makovsky chose to depict Ophelia from act IV, scene VII.  Mad with grief, Ophelia appears before her brother Laertes singing and strewing imaginary flowers and herbs.  The botanical imagery in her soliloquy inspired Makovsky's nuanced and haunting representation.  Ophelia's crown of rosemary, daisies, columbine, fennel and other herbs accents the ethereal beauty of her fair skin. Her penetrating gaze underscores her bitter fate, an innocent victim of destructive forces.

``There's Rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray love, remember and there is pansies, that's for thoughts...There's fennel for you, and columbines' there's rue for you; and there's some for me: we may call it herb-grace o'Sunday's.  O, you must wear your rue with difference.  There's a daisy; I would give you some violets but they withered all when my father died.''