It is an enlarged copy of the only pre-revolutionary picture taken on the porch of Klodt’s mansion. The photograph is likely to have been taken between 1898 and 1904. The original can be seen in the Shcherbachevs’ family album which is kept in the Central State Archive of the Samara Region. The album contains photographs of Alexander Shcherbachev with his family, some of his projects and pictures of the mansion.

The person sitting across the table and looking into the camera is the owner of the mansion, Ivan Klodt. The person next to him is architect Alexander Shcherbachev. He designed the mansion, supervised the construction work and was a frequent visitor to the Klodts’ place. The original has arrows pointing to the men, with their names written beside the arrows. They were added by Piotr Shcherbachev who, like his father, became an architect.

The person seen at the head of the table is presumably Ekaterina Klodt, the lady of the house and Ivan Klodt’s spouse. The young lady sitting between her and Alexander Shcherbachev is unknown. There is someone behind the architect looking out of the window but it is difficult to see the person’s face.

Alexander Shcherbachev first came to Samara in February 1889 at the invitation of the head of the city. He worked as a class artist-architect of the second grade for about 10 years. One of his main architectural projects of that time was the Resurrection Cathedral that he worked on together with the French-born Russian architect Ernest Gibert.

In the autumn of 1889, Alexander Shcherbachev married Alexandra Alabina, the daughter of the city head, who organised charity performances in the city, but later developed an interest in art history and wrote a few papers on the art theory. In 1890, their son Piotr was born. The Shcherbachevs met the Klodt brothers, Karl and Ivan, who were merchants. Their families became close friends. In 1893 Shcherbachev’s wife Alexandra became godmother to Karl Klodt’s adopted son, Leonid.

Ivan Klodt has a bottle of beer on the table in front of him produced by the Partnership of the Zhigulevsk Brewery of Alfred von Wakano and Co., founded in 1880. The guests are sitting in bentwood chairs, which grew in popularity in Russia from the 1890s. Those two details make it possible to approximately determine the time frame within which the photograph might have been taken. The photographer is unknown.

One can see a branch of some plant on the left; it is probably a magnolia. Researchers do not know if the porch was unenclosed or glassed-in. One more picture from the Shcherbachevs’ archive shows a wooden structure which separated the porch from the garden. It is believed that the porch was temporarily enclosed for the wintertime.