Nikolay Vasilyevich Tulupov (1863–1939) was one of the most prominent teachers of his time, an employee of Ivan Sytin’s publishing house, and editor of the children’s literature department who also wrote many manuals and children’s books.

In 1896, Sytin & Co invited Nikolay Tulupov to establish a special department of the people’s school libraries. The tasks of the department included, among other things, compiling lists of books for popular reading and selecting books to award students and for distribution at school holidays. Nikolay Tulupov very quickly compiled a special catalog of the department, where rules, instructions and regulations concerning school and public libraries were collected, as well as lists of systematically selected books for libraries. In 1896, at the All-Russian Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod, the catalog received a first-class diploma in the educational department. Under the editorship of Tulupov, various textbooks, Russian folk tales, and the magazine “Children’s Friend” were published.

The portrait of Tulupov was painted by Georgy Dmitrievich Alekseyev, a graduate of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he studied at the Department of Painting under Ilya Repin, Valentin Serov and Nikolay Kasatkin. In 1905, Georgy Alekseyev became a member of the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions. In 1914, he graduated from the Department of Sculpture of the same school. He received the titles of “Class Artist” and “Sculptor of the first class”.

As a student, Alekseyev collaborated with Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin: he made illustrations for the anniversary edition of the “Patriotic War and Russian Society”, prepared one of the most famous and original geometry manuals for children — “Geometry in Pictures for Coloring” and illustrated a large number of books and magazines.

In 1907, commissioned by the Moscow Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, he created a bust of Karl Marx, which became one of the first sculptural images of the founder of Scientific Communism in Russia. In 1918, Alekseyev made a number of sketches from life of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in his office. In the same year, according to the plan of monumental propaganda, he created the relief “Union of Workers and Peasants” on the facade of the Central Lenin Museum in Moscow (now a branch of the State Historical Museum). Georgy Dmitrievich Alekseyev collaborated with Vladimir Mayakovsky and Mikhail Cheremnykh on the ROSTA Windows.