Vasili Pukirev

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((subst:prod|probable copyvio}} Vasily Vladimirovich Pukirev (1832-1890) was a Russian painter and illustrator, who's works often were meant to express social concern for reform.

He studied at the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Moscow. He first worked as a portrait painter but later turned to historical painting. He is best known for his painting "The Unequal Marriage" which depicts the wedding ceremony of an elderly, high-ranking official and a young, visibly unhappy girl. This was one of the celebrated denunciatory pictures of the 1860s, revealing the the unequal position of women and the corruption of bureaucracy. This critical mode, reflecting the general striving for reform in Russia after the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, was intended to arouse the dormant social conscience and change society. His other denunciatory works include Collection of Arrears (1869) and Damaged Field (1870).