Andrey Ryabushkin painted the portrait of his friend Iliya Tumenev and his wife at the beginning of the 1890ies. The artist did not compete the painting, which is noticeable in the depiction of the landscape. The nature is sketched in free broad-brush strokes, outlining just a few images. Despite being incomplete, the picture is very expressive, especially the figure of Tumenev. He seems to be excited, as if wanting to say something. The topic of ‘gratification’ became a characteristic feature of art on the cusp of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Andrey Ryabushkin was, above all, famous for his historical folk paintings. Tumenev recollected that Ryabushkin was interested ‘in every little detail, every old dress and costume, song, scribe and old-fashioned household appliance, carvings on wood houses or patterns on antique fabrics and towels. <…> He would memorize every interesting tune, every apt word or phrase, in other words, he was passionate about Russian folk culture.’
He also worked in the style of monumental painting, creating designs for the frescoes of the Novgorod Cathedral of St. Sophia, the family chapel in St. Petersburg and the Warsaw Orthodox Christian Cathedral.
Ryabushkin’s devotion to religious topics is not coincidental. His father and older brother were both icon painters and he learned the art of painting from them. He lost his parents at the age of 14. A student of Moscow Art School was visiting Stanichnaya Sloboda, where the boy was living at the time. He noticed the talented young man and invited him to come to Moscow. He helped Ryabushkin enroll in the Art School. Ryabushkin studied in Moscow until the death of his teacher Vasily Petrov and then moved to St. Petersburg, continuing his education in the Academy of Arts.