The collection of the Iskitim Museum of Arts and History features a painting titled “Shukshin and His Mother” by Ivan Petrovich Popov.

One of the unquestionable gifts of Vasily Shukshin was his love for his mother Mariya Sergeyevna. They had a deep emotional connection. In his writings, Vasily Shukshin emphasized that it was his mother who taught him how to love others, look into their souls, and empathize with them. Unfortunately, Mariya had a tragic fate. She was married twice, and both her husbands died. She had to raise two children on her own — Vasily and his younger sister Natalya.

Like his cousin, Ivan Popov lost his father at an early age and was fond of his mother, Stepanida Konstantinovna, and felt great sympathy for her. When he was a teenager, the future artist lost his mother and became an orphan. These years were very difficult for him. The death of his mother became one of the worst days of his life. “It was a cold day in late November. I was walking from the city to the village. Tears blurred my eyes. I couldn’t imagine what my life would be like from that moment on. I was only in the eighth grade… I studied well… But who cared about it now,” recalled Ivan Popov.

Having grieved over the loss of his own mother, Ivan Popov understood Vasily Shukshin’s feelings toward his mother and his deep affection for her.

“Vanya and Vasya Popov were very similar, both children of widows who loved their mothers dearly, with a naive and jealous love of little knights,” noted the art historian Igor Smolnikov.

In the painting, the artist depicted his cousin next to Mariya Sergeyevna, against the backdrop of the Biysk-Tomsk train. Mariya Sergeyevna always saw her son off at the station wherever he went. After leaving his home village at a young age, he “could not stay away for too long, as he was always drawn back, to his mother and sister.” Shukshin often came to Srostki and, whenever possible, visited his cousin in Novosibirsk. Ivan Popov described one such meeting in his book “Diary of an Artist”,