The portrait of Prince Mikhail Nikolayevich Golitsyn was painted in 1814. The painting has the following inscriptions: “Portrait of Yaroslavl Civil Governor Prince Mikhail Nikolayevich Golitsyn in his 57th year of life” and “painted from life by painter Fyodor Andreev Tulin 1814, 25th day of January.”
The portrait was known to have been created by Fyodor Andreyevich Tulov, a serf-peasant artist. The earliest of his renowned artworks date back to 1811.
In the 1810s he painted portraits of family members and friends of Prince Mikhail Alexandrovich Shakhovsky. From the 1830s the artist lived and worked on the estate of the industrialist Alexander Ivanovich Benkendorf in Mogilev Governorate.
The Academy of Arts granted Fyodor Andreyevich the civil rank of artist of the 14th class for his works. He was also engaged in church painting and was fond of mechanics and astronomy.
Prince Mikhail Nikolayevich Golitsyn was the civil governor of Yaroslavl in 1801–1817. During this time, a number of public institutions were opened in Yaroslavl, including the governorate gymnasium, a printing house and the first higher education institution in Russian provinces, the Demidov Higher School of Sciences, as well as a branch of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature.
At the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812, Mikhail Golitsyn headed the organization of the militia “Yaroslavl Military Force”. He was engaged in matters of providing supplies for the army, setting up hospitals, accommodating the wounded, refugees and prisoners on the territory of the governorate. He contributed 5000 rubles in donations from his income.
Prince Mikhail Nikolayevich Golitsyn visited Karabikha for the last time in 1827 and died the same year. Representatives of the princely family were owners of the estate until the mid-19th century. In the early 1860s, the estate was acquired by the poet and publisher Nikolay Alexeyevich Nekrasov.
According to the memoirs of Vera Fyodorovna
Nekrasova, the poet’s niece, the portrait originally hung in the living room of
the Manor House. Later, it was moved to the dining room of the lower floor of
the central house of the estate. The painting was taken from Karabikha after
the revolution in 1919 and handed over to the Yaroslavl Museum of Local Lore.
The work returned to the Nekrasov Memorial Museum in 1948.
