The exhibition of the Engels Museum of Local Lore presents a letter from Yakov Yakovlevich Weber to the director of the Central Museum of the Volga German ASSR. In the letter, the artist shares his plans to create a painting “Making Watermelon Hone” and a copy of the painting “The Last Passage”.

Yakov Weber addresses Alexander Merkel, director of the Central Museum in the city of Engels, with a request to send photographs or sketches of his paintings so that the artist could make replica copies. At that time, the artist lived on the right bank of the Volga River in the German settlement of Mühlberg in the Kamensky colony of the Republic of Volga Germans. At that time, before the war, life was tough, the artist had to earn his bread by working as a peasant, a job he had known since his childhood. Making copies of his painting allowed him to significantly ease the financial situation of the family, and this is what the artist’s request is primarily connected with.

After the First Republican Art Exhibition in 1927, the Central Museum of the Republic of the Volga Germans acquired 10 works by the artist, thereby laying the foundation for the museum’s art collection. The painting “The Last Passage” of 1930 was not the first acquisition of the artist’s works by the museum, but one of the most expensive ones: it was highly appreciated by critics, and the museum was ready to purchase the work for a decent sum of 1000 rubles. But the artist, due to his modesty, set the price at 600 rubles. He later wrote, “Of course, I’ve lost a lot here, but I was not annoyed in the least: my painting was saved for the museum…“. In the same letter the artist shares his plans to create a large-scale work “Making Watermelon Honey”. The preparation was thorough and long. As a result, according to the artist, the work remained unfinished. Yakov Weber considered it “a sketch, and there is not a single person painted from life”. Despite this poor characterization, the painting later adorned the museum’s art collection and was presented at the German Republican Exhibition in Engels in 1937. This exhibition was the last one organized during the artist’s lifetime.