The portrait is painted by a Polish-Russian artist Carl Reichel, the son of a famous medalist and master of the Warsaw Mint, Jacob Reichel. In 1809, he graduated from the Imperial Academy of Arts and a year later he got a scholarship and went abroad — to Paris and Rome. After returning to St. Petersburg in 1811, Reichel became a famous portrait painter.

The artist was friends with Alexander Herzen and the Decembrists. His wife Sofya Alekseevna was the stepdaughter of the exiled Decembrist Alexei Yushnevsky. After the death of Yushnevsky, who lived in the village of Malaya Razvodnaya near Irkutsk, the widow had to stay in Siberia. Her daughter and her son-in-law — the artist Reichel — and, as the writer Nikolai Belogolovy wrote, ‘a whole bunch of children’ came to visit her. The Reichel family lived in Irkutsk since 1846. There, the artist painted a portrait of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Nicholas I, for the Institute of Noble Maidens of East Siberia. Reichel occasionally traveled to Kyakhta, where he painted not only portraits, but the local cathedral as well.

In Kyakhta, Reichel also painted ‘Portrait of N. H. Kandinsky’. The Kandinsky were the largest merchant family of Siberia, which became famous in the 19th century far across the country. The founder of the dynasty was Pyotr Alekseevich, who was exiled from Yakutia to Transbaikalia to a remote penal colony in Nerchinsk. His sons became merchants. The most successful was Chrysanth, who became a merchant of the 1st guild, and then received the title of Commerce Counselor and Honorary Citizen.

The famous statesman Mikhail Speransky, who was the Siberian governor-general in 1819-1821, noted in his diary,

The portrait depicts the son of Chrysanth Petrovich –Nikolai Kandinsky, who was a merchant and philanthropist famous for his education. His house in the village of Nerchinsky Zavod was the center of local cultural life. The Decembrists and exiled Poles often visited his house, there were musical evenings held, the guests discussed the news. Later the members of Kandinsky family moved to different parts of Russia and settled in Kyakhta, Irkutsk, Moscow and other cities.

Among the descendants of the Trans-Baikal merchant dynasty, there are many famous artists, musicians, scientists, doctors, engineers. Among them is Wassily Kandinsky, one of the founders and theoretical advocates of abstract art.