The Boris Kustodiev House Museum displays a portrait of a dark-haired, fragile young woman — Maria Vlasova —- the wife of Pavel Vlasov (artist and Kustodiev’s teacher) in her youth. She has a pale face with delicate features, translucent skin and sad eyes — a typical St. Petersburg woman. Vlasova is depicted in a simple dark dress with a light collar. The portrait was painted with oil on canvas which was glued to cardboard.

Unfortunately, almost nothing is known of Pavel Vlasov’s wife Maria — even the years of her life still remain undetermined. In her book “Pavel Alexeyevich Vlasov”, the art critic Olga Ryndina, states that she was the daughter of a woodcarver. One can only assume, but it is most likely that the future couple met in her father’s workshop. Pavel Vlasov was a descendant of a wealthy Cossack family. He married the young woman against the will of his parents, who dreamed of a rich bride. It is known that Maria was very worried that she was the cause of the conflict between her husband and his family, which greatly affected their livelihood, since Vlasov’s father refused to assist his son financially. Most likely, this was the main reason why Vlasov accepted the offer of Prince Leonid Vyazemsky, the governor of Astrakhan, to take up the modest position as a teacher of drawing at the Mariinskaya Gymnasium for Girls. The young couple left the capital of the empire, St. Petersburg, and permanently moved to Astrakhan where they had a long and happy life together.

The Vlasovs had no children of their own — they took care of Vlasov’s numerous students, whom Maria kindly welcomed into the house. It is quite telling that the portrait, painted with such love and tenderness for his young wife, remained in the family until very recently. And it was only in 1936 that the painting entered the collection of the art gallery from the Astrakhan State Fund, an organization that at that time engaged in collecting, accounting, temporary storaging, and distributing objects of artistic value.