Paintings by Mikhail Vasilievich Nesterov occupy a special place in Nikolai Semyonovich Golovanov’s collection. The outstanding conductor befriended Nesterov not only because they were like-minded in terms of art — the two also had similar views on faith and religious painting.

The musician and the artist met back in the days when Golovanov worked as a cantor of the Church of the Intercession, established by the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna and built by Alexey Shchusev on the territory of the Martha and Mary Convent. Between 1908 and 1911, Golovanov and Nesterov worked there at the same time, and the latter, together with Pavel Korin, was engaged in painting the church. The painting called “Portrait of Yelena Prakhova”, which later inspired the image of Saint Barbara for the mural painting in the Saint Volodymyr’s Cathedral in Kyiv, was deeply personal for the artist.

The Mediterranean landscape of the early Christian lands was inspired by Italian landscapes. In combination with the image of Saint Barbara, endowed with national Russian features, the landscape reflects the characteristic “Nesterov” style that can be traced in many of the artist’s murals.

Yelena Prakhova was the daughter of the Russian art historian Adrian Prakhov, who headed the building committee of the Saint Volodymyr’s Cathedral in Kyiv. Many other artists, who painted the church, were drawn to her. She was a talented sweet-natured young woman, who was fond of music and fine arts. Yelena was the center of attention of this circle of artists, a beautiful lady who they worshiped. For Nesterov, the image of Lyolya, as Yelena was fondly referred to in her immediate circle, was a source of poetry and true artistic inspiration, which was reflected in this refined lyrical portrait. The image of Saint Barbara also served as a source of ideas for Golovanov to create the image of the Maiden Fevroniya from Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh”. This whole story is yet another example of artistic synthesis: a certain person becomes an inspiration for a mural, and the sketch for it fuels the creative imagination of an opera conductor, who uses the idea to embody a stage character.