The porcelain figurine “Girl in a Fur Coat” was designed by Boris Kustodiev. While studying at the Academy of Arts, Kustodiev often visited the studio of his friend Dmitry Stelletsky, a painter and a sculptor. Since he was young, Kustodiev paid a lot of attention to sculpture. In the 1920s, he also tried his hand at decorative and applied arts.

Boris Kustodiev was commissioned to design the figurines by Sergey Chekhonin, head of the Artistic Department at the Volkhov Porcelain and Faience Factory, in 1923. The artist was incredibly enthusiastic about this work. Vsevolod Voinov, his friend and biographer, described that period as follows, 

However, Chekhonin liked only two of the five figurines — “Girl” and “Accordion Player” — which he considered to be trendy. Kustodiev was somewhat offended by such feedback. As a result of a series of misunderstandings, the artist considered himself free of any obligations and transferred the right of production to the State Porcelain Factory in Petrograd (formerly known as the Imperial Porcelain Factory). This is why museum collections house figurines painted in a different manner.

A description of Kustodiev’s original painting of the figurines was provided by his children, Irina and Kirill. The girl was dressed in a red padded jacket with black fur, a black skirt, white stockings with a red stripe, and black boots (according to another version, her outfit included a jacket with flowers, and boots with flaps and elastic sides). The Boris Kustodiev House Museum houses a different version. The girl is dressed in a blue skirt, a jacket with colored polka dots, a bright red padded jacket with an inside lining of yellow fur, a yellow kerchief on her head, white stockings, and black boots. Behind the girl is a small green fir tree covered with snow.

The porcelain figurine “Girl in a Fur Coat” was initially donated to the Astrakhan State Art Gallery in 1974 by A.V. Gordon, a private collector from Moscow.