The Russian Bride’s Attire is a life-sized oil painting by the Russian artist Konstantin Makovsky that is currently hanging in the Legion of Honor. At 110 x 147 inches, the piece pulls you in; as if you could step right into it and begin helping the ladies prepare the bride for marriage, or maybe bust her out of there. Makovsky is telling a subtle story through the composition and subject of this painting. The amount of emotion he brings with his angles and use of light and color is breath taking. He’s telling the story of a young girl who is set to be married off to the king, although this may sound glamourous, the girl looks unhappy, and no wonder; she’s a teenager preparing for marriage, preparing to leave behind her family and everything
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She’s holding hands with a girl below her, who’s gazing up at her with sympathetic eyes, perhaps her sister. The emotional focal point in this piece is not the bride, but the look exchanged between herself and this girl. Everything else in the painting is an accessory to their gaze. Behind them are ladies looking toward the bride or turned to one another, some may be helping her prepare for her wedding or assessing her trousseau. The scent of perfume seems to hover in the air; the sound of courtly gossip is implied in their sidelong glances. Makovsky expertly placed these ladies diagonally on either side of her; they bracket her and her sorrow like a frame that brings the honest emotion she feels into sharper focus. There is an older woman looking directly in between the bride and the lady holding her hand by her feet. This woman is yet another line bringing you in to that emotion, that …show more content…
It’s the only dark part of the paintings that’s not near the edge; therefore our eyes are drawn to it. All the other ladies heads are covered in headdresses that let the viewer identify them, as well as let the ladies identify each other. The bride’s bare head represents the changes in her life she will experience after the wedding. Normally she would wear a headdress, just as the as the women surrounding her do, but at this moment she wears her hair loose and unbound. It doesn’t matter what societal role she is destined to play, in this captured moment she isn’t a duchess or a daughter of an important aristocrat; she is the bride. Stripping her of any other identity allows us to put many faces on her, she could be anybody. She no longer is a specific person but now a representation of idealized young aristocratic brides in Russia during the 17th-19th century. To me however she represents much more than that, her story is one we see repeat itself infinitely through time. The young girl whose person represents a transfer of wealth, aristocratic lineage and implied fertility, her beauty is a nice bonus but this is not a love match. This girl was never wooed, she was picked out from a lineup of eligible young girls, perhaps she was chosen for having the best childbearing hips. She has come to the end of her own childhood in this picture; she is destined to spend her short life
She’s holding hands with a girl below her, who’s gazing up at her with sympathetic eyes, perhaps her sister. The emotional focal point in this piece is not the bride, but the look exchanged between herself and this girl. Everything else in the painting is an accessory to their gaze. Behind them are ladies looking toward the bride or turned to one another, some may be helping her prepare for her wedding or assessing her trousseau. The scent of perfume seems to hover in the air; the sound of courtly gossip is implied in their sidelong glances. Makovsky expertly placed these ladies diagonally on either side of her; they bracket her and her sorrow like a frame that brings the honest emotion she feels into sharper focus. There is an older woman looking directly in between the bride and the lady holding her hand by her feet. This woman is yet another line bringing you in to that emotion, that …show more content…
It’s the only dark part of the paintings that’s not near the edge; therefore our eyes are drawn to it. All the other ladies heads are covered in headdresses that let the viewer identify them, as well as let the ladies identify each other. The bride’s bare head represents the changes in her life she will experience after the wedding. Normally she would wear a headdress, just as the as the women surrounding her do, but at this moment she wears her hair loose and unbound. It doesn’t matter what societal role she is destined to play, in this captured moment she isn’t a duchess or a daughter of an important aristocrat; she is the bride. Stripping her of any other identity allows us to put many faces on her, she could be anybody. She no longer is a specific person but now a representation of idealized young aristocratic brides in Russia during the 17th-19th century. To me however she represents much more than that, her story is one we see repeat itself infinitely through time. The young girl whose person represents a transfer of wealth, aristocratic lineage and implied fertility, her beauty is a nice bonus but this is not a love match. This girl was never wooed, she was picked out from a lineup of eligible young girls, perhaps she was chosen for having the best childbearing hips. She has come to the end of her own childhood in this picture; she is destined to spend her short life