The exhibition of the Ostrogozhsk Museum of History and Art features several genre paintings by the daughter of Ivan Kramskoy, the painter Sophia Ivanovna Junker-Kramskaya.

The “Conversation Between Two Ladies” was inspired by Nikolai Gogol’s most famous work — the novel “Dead Souls”. In the foreground, two young women sit in the corner of a large sofa. A governorate capital was a place where people had to proceed with caution and sensitivity in order not to offend someone inadvertently — as a result of such customs and traditions, and the news was passed on confidentially, by word of mouth. The artist ironically demonstrates the vapid conversations, most likely rumors, between a lady who is “simply agreeable” and a lady who is “agreeable in all respects”. The two characters are stuck in mediocrity disguised as something elevated and sublime but in fact, merely imitate spirituality. Having arrived to notify her friend of the visit of a famous landlady to the city, the “simply agreeable lady” forgets about the goal of her visit, even though it initially seemed quite important to her. They become engaged in discussing fashion which transitions into an exciting story about Chichikov’s attempt to run away with the governor’s daughter. The line between fact and fiction gets blurred. Rumors and gossip substitute reality and create its new versions. This is only a small episode of everyday life of Russian provinces — uyezds and governorates.

Sophia Junker-Kramskaya preferred portraits as her favorite genre but also sometimes created genre paintings. It is no wonder that she created numerous illustrations to the works of Russian writers. She admitted that finding an appropriate subject matter required some luck and allowed an artist to reveal their potential fully.

Portraying Gogol’s characters, especially female ones, is both a complicated and an interesting task. The artist managed to capture the sticky and stale world that Nikolai Gogol had described so aptly. Even if the painter knows the historical and ethnographic material very well, no illustration of a literary work is possible without showing some of the artist’s fantasy and taste. Sophia Junker-Kramskaya inhabited this provincial living room with numerous objects that speak volumes about their owners. She also skillfully reflected the emotions of the gossiping women who turned red in the face upon hearing the exciting news.