The museum houses an artwork by the Russian painter and draftsman Karl Bryullov. He came from the Bryullov dynasty of artists and was one of the leading representatives of late Russian classicism in the first half of the 19^thcentury. He was born with the surname Bryullo which he bore until 1822.

The portrait of Nicolaus Theodor Zdekauer was transferred to the museum in 1919 from the collection of the diocesan architect Anatoly Podchekaev whose life was closely connected with the Pskov region. Anatoly Alekseyevich Podchekaev was born in Opochka and studied in Pskov. Later, he moved to Warsaw and spent a long time in Riga. He designed buildings such as the Mariinsky Gymnasium in Pskov, and the Church of Saint Peter in Pechory, as well as numerous buildings in Estonia. Anatoly Podchekaev was buried in Tartu.

Karl Bryullov painted the portrait of his physician a few years before his own death. Nicolaus Zdekauer was a general practitioner, a Doctor of Medicine, an honorary physician, and founder of the National Health association.

Karl Bryullov, who was receiving treatment with mineral waters near Rome in Italy, was aware that his life was ending. He predicted his passing,

Soon, in June 1852, the artist passed away from heart disease.

“By order of the Mission, the artist’s body was transported to Rome and was buried today according to the rituals of the Protestant Church to which the deceased belonged, at the local Protestant cemetery. All Russian artists who were in Rome at the time, including a prominent colleague of the deceased, the director of the Hermitage Gallery, Professor Bruni, and some foreign artists, attended this sorrowful ceremony to pay their respects to the great artist whose paintings were a source of pride for Russian artists and who rightfully became famous throughout Europe, ” the art historian Nikolay Georgievich Mashkovtsev wrote in his 1961 book “Bryullov in Letters, Documents, and the Memoirs of Contemporaries“.