Egor Makovsky

In 1827, Makovsky was appointed as an accountant in the Office of the Kremlin Buildings, headed by Prince Nikolay Yusupov, and served there until old age.^[1][2]

While working as an accountant, Makovsky continued to work as an enthusiastic amateur painter of miniature portraits and also copied paintings kept in the Grand Kremlin Palace. He had inherited his father's collection of engravings and added to it. He also played the guitar, taking lessons from the guitarist I. V. Bogdanov.^[2]

Makovsky was a friend of the painters Karl Bryullov, Vasily Tropinin, Sergey Zaryanko, and Pyotr Sokolov, and the sculptor Ivan Vitali.^[2] In 1832, Makovsky and others founded a "Nature class", which by 1842 had become a private art school. In 1865, this was merged with the Palace School of Architecture, established in 1749 by Dmitry Ukhtomsky, to form the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.^[1]

Makovsky died in his apartment in Moscow in 1886 and was buried at the Vagankovo Cemetery.^[3]

In 1835, Makovsky married Lubov Kornilovna Mollengauer (1800–1893), a notable Moscow beauty, daughter of Cornelius Mollengauer, a German merchant originally from Königsberg who made musical instruments. She was a talented singer and sang as a soprano in concerts. After her marriage, she sang at musical evenings at home. Portraits of her were painted by Bryullov and Tropinin. However, the marriage ended in divorce. In 1866 she was appointed as a singing teacher by Nikolai Rubinstein when the Moscow Conservatory was established ^[4]

The Makovskys had five children: Maria (born 1836); Alexandra (1837–1915), a landscape painter; Konstantin (1839–1915), a painter; Nikolai (1841–1886), a painter; Vladimir (1846–1920), a painter and graphic artist.^[1]