The collection of Nikolai Semyonovich Golovanov housed several works by one of the leading artists of Russian Art Nouveau, Victor Borisov-Musatov. The memorial section of the Apartment Museum in the conductor’s office presents one of them — the study “Head of a Young Woman”.

The painter Victor Elpidiforovich Borisov-Musatov was a member of the Union of Russian Artists. He studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, as well as at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, where he was mentored by the famous painter Pavel Petrovich Chistyakov.

Female images occupy the central place in the artist’s oeuvre. They are timeless, not belonging to any specific historical era, set in eternity. These images, on the one hand, combine the general features of the artist’s contemporaries with the psychological characteristics of Eurydice, Beatrice, and Mona Lisa, as well as the characters created by Sandro Botticelli in “Primavera” and the fresco “Venus and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman”. The portrayal of a pensive girl is typical of many of the artist’s works. The “Musatov girl” image, characteristic of many of the artist’s paintings, first appeared in “Self-Portrait with Sister”.

The paintings of Borisov-Musatov were a harbinger of symbolism in Russian art and influenced many famous artists, including those of the Blue Rose artist association.

The collection of Nikolai Semyonovich Golovanov contained a few works that featured beautiful female images, including a copy of the fresco from the Louvre “Venus and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman” by the artist Lyubov Popova and sculptural portraits of Dante and Beatrice. These images are now displayed at the Golovanov museum.