The portraits of Alexander Herzen’s parents were painted by Ivan Letunov, a serf artist of the writer’s uncle Lev Yakovlev, also known as the Senator. Ivan Letunov taught little Sasha how to draw. Nowadays, the original portraits belong to Michel Herzen, the great-grandson of Alexander Herzen, and are kept in Switzerland. Copies made by the writer’s daughter Natalya were donated to the museum by Natalya Petrovna Herzen and Léonard Rist, the great-grandchildren of the writer, in 1982. Léonard Rist attached a note in French to the back of the portrait,

In 1863, Alexander Herzen wrote to his relatives that he had sent portraits to his daughter,

The writer’s mother Henriette Wilhelmina Luisa Haag was born in Stuttgart. Her father was a minor German official. After his death in 1805, his family with three children was left with no means of support. In 1811, the young Luiza Haag left Germany to live in the house of the wealthy Russian landlord Ivan Alexeyevich Yakovlev. In Russia, she became known as Luiza Ivanovna. The Russian nobleman never married her, and their son Alexander Herzen was born out of wedlock in 1812. This is why he was given the surname “Herzen” from the German word “Herz” meaning “heart”.