Among other rare exhibits in the Velimir Khlebnikov House Museum are many items that belonged to the poet’s sister Vera Vladimirovna Khlebnikova. They include a strand of her hair, her first blotter, a mug with eastern paintings, a homemade cameo, a paperweight made of volcanic lava, a decorative wooden egg, and a doll that Vera Vladimirovna made for her little son May. The museum also keeps foreign and domestic postcards, as well as paintings and graphic works by the artist herself.

Among the exhibits related to the artist’s creative career, a painter’s case, paints, and a chair brought from Florence are of particular interest. Vera Vladimirovna took this wooden chair and the painter’s case with a leather handle and hooks with her on trips to paint en plein air.

As a professional, she paid great attention to the quality of paints. “The brilliant painter had no paints, no paper, no canvas, ” Pyotr Vasilyevich Miturich described the difficult conditions of the Russian Civil War for his future wife. The paints that Vera Vladimirovna tried to make herself were of poor quality, which led to an irreversible darkening of her canvases (this happened, for example, with the painting “On the Artist’s Path”).

Poster Colour is a Japanese poster gouache that meets high standards. Saturated and concentrated paints allow to work in the technique of color layering and apply light tones over darker ones after drying without compromising the result. Thanks to the special texture, they lie down evenly, leaving no streaks even on a large area, and when working with a dry brush, they create a matte velvety effect. Natural gum arabic resin and natural pigments are used for the production of Poster Colour .

Paints are stored in four glass jars inside the painter’s case: black, green made of buckthorn fruits, bright red cinnabar and Prussian blue.

Vera Vladimirovna Khlebnikova had to order high-quality paints and canvases abroad; bills came to Astrakhan to the account of Vladimir Khlebnikov, her father, who paid for them, supporting his daughter’s career path.