The museum houses a small but rather fascinating collection of 19th-century Russian painting that mostly consists of portraits. “Portrait of an Unknown Woman with a Red Shawl” entered the collection from the Kaluga Natural History Museum in the 1920s.

Judging by her appearance, the woman in this portrait belonged to a wealthy merchant family. The artist used the style typical of merchant portraits — a full-face portrait with a local color palette. At the same time, he managed to capture the look in the woman’s eyes and the essence of her identity, while trying to achieve the effect of her physical presence.

This shows that the artist was a true professional. Only such talented painters received portrait commissions from wealthy merchant families. The woman decided to sit for this portrait wearing an Empire waist dress made of light pink fabric with a low neckline.

This dress is trimmed with delicate sheer lace at the top. Around her bodice, the woman wears a wide white ribbon, tied into a small bow under the bust. She covers her shoulders with a red shawl decorated with a floral pattern.

Merchants’ wives preferred to wear such outfits to balls and evening functions. Shawls came into fashion in Europe and later in the Russian Empire thanks to Joséphine Bonaparte, the wife of Emperor Napoleon I.

Noblewomen often wore warm beautiful shawls with light dresses. Merchants’ wives did their best to keep up with the fashion and follow the trends.

The painter also paid close attention to depicting the woman’s jewelry. For this portrait, she chose large oval-shaped silver earrings with pendants, and gold gemstone rings.

Apart from precious stones, merchants’ wives were also fond of pearls. Around her neck, the woman wears a three-strand necklace made of big pearls. The necklace has a silver insert in the middle. In the 19th century, pearls were extremely fashionable and therefore very expensive.