Elena Luksch-Makowsky

Elena Luksch-Makowsky, née Makowsky (born November 4, 1878, in Saint Petersburg, died August 15, 1967, in Hamburg) was a Russian painter and sculptor.

Early life and career Makowsky was born in 1878 in Saint Petersburg, and was the daughter of Konstantin Makovsky and niece of Vladimir Makovsky, both court painters for the czars of Russia affiliated with the group of Russian artists known as Peredvizhniki ("Wanderers"). In 1889, Elena and her siblings embarked on a tour of Europe with their mother, Julia Makowsky, which included trips to Venice, Florence, Nice and other places, and to which Luksch-Makowsky would later credit her ability with languages and fluency in English, French, and German. Although Makowsky's childhood included training for her assumed future as wife, mother and homemaker, her father acknowledged and encouraged her artistic talents. From Munich, Makowsky had a studio in Dutenhofen northeast of Dachau, where she met her future husband, the Viennese sculptor Richard Luksch, in 1900. In 1902, Lucsch-Makowsky was featured prominently in the 14th Vienna Secession exhibition, also known at the Beethoven exhibition. In 1903, she contributed color woodcuts to a special issue of Ver Sacrum.

In 1907, the Lukschs moved to Hamburg after Richard Luksch was made a professor at the School of Arts and Crafts. it was there that Luksch-Makowsky began work on her sculpture, Frauenschicksal (Woman's Fate), which art historians have suggested foreshadows her struggle as a single parent. Indeed, when she and Luksch divorced in 1921 she was left to support her three sons on her own.