The image of the Holy Virgin of the Tolga was particularly venerated in Yaroslavl. The icon legend has it that the original icon appeared before Prokhor, the bishop of Rostov, near the place where a small river called the Tolga falls into the Volga. Hence the name of the icon. The Tolga Monastery was erected where the icon was discovered. Since the middle of the 17th century, the Holy Virgin of the Tolga has been perceived as a wonder making icon revered throughout Russia. In the early 18th century, an icon artist from Yaroslavl, Ivan (Ioann) Andreyev, renovated the old work of Christian art by removing the decayed fragments and repainting the lost parts of the paint.

The artist had come from the city of Kostroma. In the first half of the 18th century, he served as a deacon, later as a priest in the Yaroslavl Church of Demetrius of Thessalonica. He painted numerous icons for a lot of churches in Yaroslavl.

The icon now owned by the Yaroslavl Museum Reserve was held by the summer Church of the Great Martyr Barbara, which no longer exists. In 1922, it was acquired by the Yaroslavl History Museum. The precious icon mount made by Yaroslavl silversmiths has survived. It was removed during restoration. It has an icon shield and is decorated with mother-of-pearl beads, green and pink stones.