The Zaraysk Kremlin Museum holds the richest collection of Russian portrait painting. It is interesting that mainly those depicted in the portraits are closely related by family, friendship or kinship. This is because most of the portraits came to the museum collection from the city houses of the Zaraysk merchants.
So is the ‘Portrait of a Young Zaraysk Merchantress in the Red Dress’ created by an unknown artist of the early 19th century.
The merchant class in Russia was considered a semi-privileged, ‘third’ estate (after the nobility and clergy). By the manifesto from March 17, 1775, it was officially declared as a class. The document, signed by Catherine II, distinguished merchants from the urban population and united them in guilds. By the beginning of the 19th century, the number of merchants began to increase, and this growth continued until the end of the 19th century, when their number reached more than 280,000.
The traditional merchant way of life ran more towards folk and peasant life. Unlike the nobility, European trends and fashions were little reflected in it. This manifested itself in all areas of the merchants’ life. For example, the 19th century writer Pavel Ivanovich Sumarokov described the merchants' outfit: “The merchants wore kokoshniks, veils, sheshuns, feryazes, damask quilts, quilted and futon jackets, pearl necklaces and diamond earrings in their ears”.
Indeed, we can see some of these jewels on the “Portrait of a Merchantress” from the Zaraysk Kremlin collection. She wears a red dress with a traditional patterned shawl thrown over her shoulders. A lot of jewelry made of gold and pearls, openwork lace shows the prosperity of the merchantress.
Most of the Zaraysk merchants were wealthy people, because until the middle of the 19th century the city was one of the largest trade centers in Russia. The Astrakhan highway, connecting Moscow with the Lower Volga region, as well as the roads leading to the fertile lands of the Don region passed through it, so there was no shortage in buyers. At the beginning of the 19th century, there were over 500 merchants and 136 shops in the city, and fairs were regularly held.
Woman’s exterior was another indirect sign of wealth. This is how Nikolai Leskov describes a female merchant portrait in the story ‘The Sealed Angel’.
‘— Then you don’t reckon a woman a beauty unless she is like a clod of earth.’
— A clod of earth! " the story-teller repeated, without being offended. " What do you take us, for? We have a Russian idea of what a woman’s figure should be, and it does not answer to the present flighty, fashionable type… But still we do not admire a clod; we do not admire the long-legged maypoles, and we like a woman to stand not on long legs but on strong legs, so that she may not stumble but roll about everywhere like a ball’
We see something similar in the image of the Merchantress in the portrait - soft shapes, sloping shoulders, a healthy blush on the cheeks.
So is the ‘Portrait of a Young Zaraysk Merchantress in the Red Dress’ created by an unknown artist of the early 19th century.
The merchant class in Russia was considered a semi-privileged, ‘third’ estate (after the nobility and clergy). By the manifesto from March 17, 1775, it was officially declared as a class. The document, signed by Catherine II, distinguished merchants from the urban population and united them in guilds. By the beginning of the 19th century, the number of merchants began to increase, and this growth continued until the end of the 19th century, when their number reached more than 280,000.
The traditional merchant way of life ran more towards folk and peasant life. Unlike the nobility, European trends and fashions were little reflected in it. This manifested itself in all areas of the merchants’ life. For example, the 19th century writer Pavel Ivanovich Sumarokov described the merchants' outfit: “The merchants wore kokoshniks, veils, sheshuns, feryazes, damask quilts, quilted and futon jackets, pearl necklaces and diamond earrings in their ears”.
Indeed, we can see some of these jewels on the “Portrait of a Merchantress” from the Zaraysk Kremlin collection. She wears a red dress with a traditional patterned shawl thrown over her shoulders. A lot of jewelry made of gold and pearls, openwork lace shows the prosperity of the merchantress.
Most of the Zaraysk merchants were wealthy people, because until the middle of the 19th century the city was one of the largest trade centers in Russia. The Astrakhan highway, connecting Moscow with the Lower Volga region, as well as the roads leading to the fertile lands of the Don region passed through it, so there was no shortage in buyers. At the beginning of the 19th century, there were over 500 merchants and 136 shops in the city, and fairs were regularly held.
Woman’s exterior was another indirect sign of wealth. This is how Nikolai Leskov describes a female merchant portrait in the story ‘The Sealed Angel’.
‘— Then you don’t reckon a woman a beauty unless she is like a clod of earth.’
— A clod of earth! " the story-teller repeated, without being offended. " What do you take us, for? We have a Russian idea of what a woman’s figure should be, and it does not answer to the present flighty, fashionable type… But still we do not admire a clod; we do not admire the long-legged maypoles, and we like a woman to stand not on long legs but on strong legs, so that she may not stumble but roll about everywhere like a ball’
We see something similar in the image of the Merchantress in the portrait - soft shapes, sloping shoulders, a healthy blush on the cheeks.
