The Tomsk History Museum has a humble collection of works of art, some of which are displayed in the ‘Merchant’s Drawing Room’ exhibition. First and foremost, this collection is represented by portrait paintings by Tomsk artists. One of such works is the painting “Mother” by Vsevolod Lozhkin. Adorning one of the walls of the merchant’s drawing room, the canvas aims to demonstrate how staterooms of wealthy homeowners were decorated with paintings at the turn of the 20th century: usually, these were works with religious subjects, landscapes, and portraits.

Vsevolod Lozhkin’s career began in the early 20th century when there were very few artists in Siberia. The first exhibition of Lozhkin’s works took place at the Tomsk Society of Art Enthusiasts, which was an association that organized competitions, awarded prizes, and supported elderly and novice artists. The Society’s regular exhibition was held between 1909 and 1910 and resulted in Lozhkin being recognized as a promising young artist. Subsequently, his paintings were on display in Tomsk all the time.

One of such exhibitions was held in the Korolyovskoye trade school from April 16 to 28, 1919. During that time, the artist served as a clerk under the Ministry of Supply officer for the Tomsk and Altai governorates. The exhibition proved to be popular, receiving 770 visitors and selling 72 paintings. Sometime later, a catalog was released, containing copies of paintings by old European masters—Raphael Sanzio and Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn—as well as still lives, landscapes, and genre paintings by Russian artists. Among them was Vsevolod Lozhkin’s canvas titled ‘Mother’.

‘Mother’ belongs to Lozhkin’s early works. It depicts a woman breastfeeding a baby. The background is roughly sketched in shades of dark brown, without giving us any details of the interior and furnishings around the characters. This way, the artist focused the viewer’s attention on the mother and her baby. He also emphasized this with the work’s color palette: the dazzling white shirt of the child serves as the center of the composition, while the mother’s pinkish jacket is a secondary, but nonetheless important, accent. Both of them seem to be illuminated by a sidelight that separates the painting’s characters from the dark background.

The Tomsk History Museum acquired the painting in 2012. Before that, this work by Vsevolod Lozhkin was kept in the private collection of Mikhail Borisovich Zusman.