At the beginning of his career, Ivan Silych Goryushkin-Sorokopudov worked extensively in the field of illustration and created compositions depicting scenes from literary works. These included works for the novel “In the Forests” by Pavel Ivanovich Melnikov-Pechersky, the epic poem “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, and the novel “Prince Serebrenni” by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, among others.

One of such illustrations was created based on the novel “Olesya” by Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin. The story was first published in the “Kyivlyanin” private newspaper in 1899. It is considered one of Kuprin’s first major works and was among his personal favorites.

The illustration depicts the main characters of the story in a generalized manner. There are Olesya, Ivan Timofeyevich lying at her feet, and grandmother Manuylikha who is depicted from behind next to the house. She is indicated by the red shawl wrapped around her shoulders.

The illustration by Ivan Goryushkin-Sorokopudov traces the main theme of Kuprin’s story — the tragic love between a city gentleman and a young girl who lives in a lonely hut in the middle of a forest with her grandmother. The artist changed Olesya’s appearance compared to her description in the book. In his illustration, she appears to the viewer as blonde, although in Alexander Kuprin’s novel she was described differently,