The exhibit from the museum collection is a portrait of a boy in tattered clothes sitting on a bench against a dark brown background. Next to the boy is a wicker basket, the child holds a stick in his left hand. On his head is a peak cap. He has a Russian peasant caftan without a collar, or zipun coat, made of coarse thick cloth, and pants. On his feet, he has worn-out footwear.

The portrait was painted by Ivan Ivanovich Tvorozhnikov, a Russian painter, genre artist and portraitist. He was born into a serf family in the village of Zhukovo, Tver Governorate, in 1848.

Ivan Tvorozhnikov got his initial education in a rural parochial school. This is where he developed an interest in drawing.

At the age of 12, Ivan Tvorozhnikov was sent to St. Petersburg to make a living. He mastered a number of professions in the capital and changed several jobs: a waiter, an inn servant, a clerk in a shop, a handyman in a workshop, a laborer. Tvorozhnikov painted at every spare moment. These paintings interested a professional artist, who helped him enter the Drawing School of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of Arts in St. Petersburg.

At the end of the course, when Tvorozhnikov was 20 years old, he entered the Academy of Arts, where he was awarded two Small and two Large Silver Medals for his achievements in drawing and painting. Seven more years later, he was awarded a Small Gold Medal and the title of a Class Artist of the First Degree.

By the age of 30, the artist, together with the painter Vasily Surikov, was engaged in painting the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. He also took part in painting the iconostasis of St. Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

By this time, the new genre painting had gained momentum in Russia. Ivan Tvorozhnikov abandoned biblical and historical themes and turned to a new genre, which reflected the ideas of Narodniki movement. His best works of this period were “The Seller of Soul-Saving books”, “Near the Church”, “God Sent the Mercy”.

Tvorozhnikov often visited his native village, where he painted portraits of his fellow villagers. It was there that the painting “A Beggar Boy with a Basket” was painted. It is housed in the Alexander Grigoriev Art and History Museum.

The artist depicted a child wandering through the villages asking for alms.