The artist Fyodor Bogorodsky was a versatile person. In addition to painting, he put in a lot of time into theatre: wrote scripts, prepared sets, acted in plays and even performed with circus tricks.
Circus was his hobby since childhood. His friends recalled that even at school he disappeared for rehearsals for hours and almost mastered a complex trick performed with a balancing lever on the pyramid of chairs.
He mastered the art of focus so well, that amazed with his tricks not only friends, but also professional guest performers who came to town. The scenic pseudonym of Bogorodsky was Ferry.
The heroine of this portrait is Anna Skopina, a stage partner and wife of the artist. They acted together in the Nude and Ferry’s performance. The couple performed in cowboy costumes that perfectly reflected hot temper and character of the actors. According to Bogorodsky’s memories, at the end of the performance Skopina ‘threw him into the back blanche of the somersault-mortal’. There’s a memory of one of Ferrie’s single performances. In it he came out to the spectators in a striped sailor’s top and cap and performed energetic tap dancing, simultaneously showing card tricks.
Having become famous, he did not leave the dream of creating a gallery of portraits of circus artists, was going to performances, making sketches. He hatched the idea of the painting The Gutta-percha Boy. It was supposed to be a scene with a boy who had fallen from a trapeze. The artist wanted to portray the moment when the boy had already been brought backstage, and his father, in the makeup of a clown, was holding him on his lap, while the cheerful performance continued behind a slightly covered arena entrance. However, in 1959 the artist, feeling that he could not finish the work, destroyed the sketches. Even the outline of the painting did not survive.
