Adrian
Markovich Volkov

19 Aug 1827 (S. Chmutova of Nizhny Novgorod province.) - February 1, 1873 (St. Petersburg)

Student of the Academy of Arts in 1841 Received medals: 1852 - 2 silver; 1853 - 1 silver; 1855 - 2 silver; 1857 - 2 silver; 1858 - 2 gold for the painting "Obzhorny series in St. Petersburg"; 1860 - a gold medal for the expression in the film "Broken marriage". In 1861 the title of the class artist. (Kondakov)

The wolves worked a lot in watercolor, was a great draughtsman. He was the author of many satirical drawings in the magazine "spark", published in 1871-1893 magazine "Painter".

The beginning of the second half of the XIX century in Russia coincides with a growing discontent of a significant part of the population with the existing order in the country, the lives of the majority of the population. The defeat in the Crimean war and half-hearted reforms to abolish serfdom only increase the number of dissatisfied. Nekrasovskiy line "must be a Citizen" in art are implemented in the direction that will later receive the name "critical realism". In painting also appeared a group of artists, paintings which denounced certain vices that exist in society — social inequality, hard work, the pain of the widow or the hopelessness of the patient, unequal marriages, alcoholism etc.

Such a civil position of a young graduate of the class of painting folk scenes of the Academy of arts Adrian Volkov, when is the Dean of the plot "Conspiracy of the bride" offered to him by the Council of the Academy, he exhibited dramatic picture of the "Broken engagement" (1860). The plot (and the plots of genre paintings are easily translated into the language of words, it is easy to make a small story) ordinary: at the time of betrothal of a young man who wants to improve his financial situation by marrying a merchant's daughter, appears in the doorway once seduced and abandoned by this good young woman with a baby in her arms. Note that the picture of A. Volkov, condemning the immorality of one man, was quite cold met the Council of the Academy, but has found a warm response in broad circles of Russian society.

Subsequent work by A. M. Volkov also performed in accordance with its civic creed. Such an organic combination of public appeal and creative enthusiasm was typical of many Russian painters of the last decades of the nineteenth century.