Pukirev, Vasilii Vladimirovich

Born in 1832 in the village of Luzhniki, in present-day Tula Oblast; died June 1 (13), 1890, in Moscow. Russian painter.

From 1847 to 1858, Pukirev studied with S. K. Zarianko at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. He taught at the school from 1861 to 1873, receiving a professorship there in 1863. In the 1850’s, Pukirev worked primarily as a portraitist. He later turned to genre and historical painting. He also worked as an illustrator.

Pukirev’s most important painting was Misalliance (1862, Tret’iakov Gallery). The picture’s caustic denunciatory content and its protest against women’s lack of rights and against the treatment of marriage as a commercial transaction had extensive social repercussions. Pukirev’s other denunciatory works include Collection of Arrears (1869–70) and The Damaged Field (1870).