The art collection of the Boris Kustodiev House Museum houses one of the artist’s earliest works — a portrait of Alexandra Protasova, painted in 1900.

The Protasov spouses — Nikolay and Alexandra — were friends with the Kustodievs for many years and exchanged letters with them. Nikolai Protasov was closely involved with the Astrakhan art scene. He was the director of the Astrakhan Art Gallery and considered it necessary to keep his famous friend up to date on what was going on in the city. In his letters, he not only talked in detail about the health and affairs of his family and mutual acquaintances, but also reported on cultural events and sometimes acted as an intermediary in transferring orders to Kustodiev from fans of his work. Upon founding the art gallery, he requested the artist to create work for its collection.

Kustodiev painted the portrait of Alexandra while studying at the Academy of Arts. It is attributed to the summer of 1900, during one of Kustodiev’s visits to his hometown on vacation. A woman sitting in a deep armchair looks at the viewer from the canvas. She has a serious expression on her intelligent face with a high forehead, her hair is dark and her hairstyle formal. In her right hand, resting on the armrest, she holds a large open fan. Behind the model one can see a fluttering curtain on a bright summer day. The chair is located by the window in the corner of the room. A part of a large drawing without a frame is seen hanging on the wall. The woman is wearing a light grayish-lilac dress made of thin fabric with a high buttoned-up collar and long sleeves with black ribbon trims. The choice of blue, gray and black tones in combination with lighting from the side of the window indicate that the portrait was created at a certain stage of Boris Kustodiev’s development as an artist. It is obvious that this was painted when the young artist was fulfilling traditional educational tasks he set for himself. The model is positioned in such a way that part of her face is brightly lit and the other is covered with shadow. Preferring light pastel colors for clothes, he successfully finds the correct color accent for the painting — an open dark fan. The leaf of the traditional bamboo is made of dark fabric with a contrasting light-colored pattern. The artist carefully reproduces the décor of the room, which is quite difficult considering the painting’s wide-cut manner. Nevertheless, the decor is “readable” and recognizable.

This portrait entered the collection of the Astrakhan State Art Gallery from Nikolay Protasov’s personal collection.