The painting ‘Friends’ (also known as ‘Au Jardin’) depicts a bright summer garden nook illuminated by the sun. Leaning on a birch perch, a girl and a boy stand among flowers and grass. They are dressed in some simple countryside clothes: the girl is in a yellow blouse and a light red headscarf with a striped apron over her dark sundress. The boy is dressed in a gray shirt and black pants.

Depictions of peasant children is one of Fedot Sychkov’s most favorite themes. The artist showed the diversity of children’s characters: their intelligence, inquisitiveness of their minds, natural talents and restlessness. In his children’s portraits, one can feel the children’s traditional independence and propensity for labor, instilled into them very early in their lives, that still distinguishes the countryside children from their urban counterparts. Sychkov loved his characters and admired them. He often depicted them surrounded by nature, especially among flowers, drawing the well-known parallel ‘children are the flowers of our life’.

Children in Sychkov’s paintings always seem natural and genuine. Due to his deep understanding of children’s psychology and a good-natured attitude towards his characters, the public always trusted him. One of his young models, Maria Fomenkova (her married name is Bednova), recalled:

Sychkov had a kind word for every child. During the long and tedious posing sessions, he would joke or tell a funny story to make the children smile. There is not a single hint of being oppressed and frightened in front of anything and anyone on the faces of his favorite models. Fedot Sychkov struggled, but did his best to instill such self-confidence into himself, as he was affected by his joyless and impoverished childhood.

In all the paintings dedicated to children, the artist used bright color schemes: he painted kids in vibrant colors of summer, among blooming front gardens, ripe fruits, and a variety of meadow and garden flowers. This can be seen in the canvases ‘Shepherdess’ and ‘Girlfriends. Children’, ‘Girls in the Garden’, ‘Children among Flowers’, ‘Under a Bush of Rowanberry’.