Boris Kustodiev
1878–1927
Boris Kustodiev was born in Astrakhan and began drawing lessons with Pavel Vlasov. At the Academy of Arts, his teachers included Vasily Savinsky and Ilya Repin. He painted portraits and genre scenes, illustrated books, designed for the theatre and made sculpture. He belonged to the Union of Russian Artists and World of Art and travelled in Europe. His self-portrait entered Florence’s Uffizi collection in 1910.
People and customs of provincial Russia became central subjects. Realist training met decorative colour and an interest in folk culture. Serious illness restricted his mobility, but he continued working. In The Merchant’s Wife at Tea, recollections of an earlier way of life receive detailed visual form: portrait, still life and townscape share one composition. Its festive abundance requires attention to the historical distance between the painting’s creation and the life it depicts.
