Pavel Fedotov

Pavel Fedotov was the first Russian painter to make everyday life a subject for satire. His small, detailed canvases poke fun at vanity, debt and marriages of convenience, in the spirit of William Hogarth, with every object in the room telling part of the story.

He was born in Moscow in 1815 and served as an officer in the Imperial Guard in Saint Petersburg, taking evening classes at the Academy of Arts before leaving the army to paint. His best known work, The Major’s Marriage Proposal (1851), shows a merchant family in a panic as a suitor arrives. Later works such as The Gamblers and Encore, Encore are darker and simpler. He died in 1852, aged 37.

Fashionable Wife and Difficult Bride are good examples of his sharp, anecdotal humour.