2-708-724 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'The Unequal Marriage', 1862, (1965). A Russian orthodox priest marries a young bride to a much older man in what is probably an arranged marriage. The woman, her eyes cast downwards, is surrounded by male wedding guests. Pukirev painted himself (far right, possibly as best man), hinting that the scene represented an episode of lost love in his own life. Painting in the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. From "Russian Painting of the 18th and 19th Centuries" by Vladimir Fiala. [Artia, Czechoslovakia, 1965]