Lukian Popov finished the picture In the Garden (Tea Party) in 1911. He was an accomplished artist by then, having graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, and having studied foreign and domestic art while traveling about Europe and Russia. He was also a full-fledged member of the Association of Itinerants and of the Kuindzhi Art Society, and participated in major exhibitions. Popov was awarded the title of Academician of painting as early as in 1912. 

However, this picture is filled with a special mood. Even the plot itself, a morning tea party in the garden, the pregnancy of one of the heroines which is revealed by her silhouette, demonstrates an intimate scene from the artist’s family life.

Popov touched on the “children”s” theme in his other works as well. He himself was born into a poor plowman family, and had to start working when he was twelve, getting a job at a stationery shop. Then he moved to St. Petersburg on his own and lived in poverty for a long time, feeding on boiled potatoes for months. Many of his paintings are dedicated to peasant children and their hard lot.

The pastoral of In the Garden (Tea Party) was followed by a tragic personal story. Popov’s son was born blind. This could be corrected by an operation, and Popov took his son to a famous surgeon in Kharkov. A few days after the intervention, the boy died. At the age of forty, Lukian Popov suddenly died as well.