Russian artist Vasyli Tropinin created the painting Old Woman with a Stocking. He is considered the founder of the democratic art developing the traditions of the future Itinerants. Art experts call Tropinin’s work “…a bridge from …regular pictorial art of the 18th century to the realistic art of the second half of the 19th century”.

When Vasyli Tropinin turned 47, he and his family managed to get absolute freedom of the serf term. He applied to the Academy for receiving the title of the artist. By that time, he already had a record of dozens of paintings, the most famous of them being Lace-maker and Old Beggar. More and more often portraits by Tropinin depicted average grassroots people: peasants, servants, representatives of the lower crust.

It was in that very period, when the artist painted Old Woman with a Stocking. 1. Tropinin’s wife Anna Katenina became his model (by that time, they had lived together for almost half a century). This is the genre portrait. The artist depicted his wife knitting a stocking. He used a combination of brown and golden hues to convey the atmosphere of homey peace and comfort.

Before 1917 revolution, scientist Boris Chicherin held Old Woman with a Stocking in his collection. In her memoirs, his wife mentions this piece by Vasyli Tropinin as Portrait of Mother. It got to Tambov Ethnography Museum, and then to Tambov Picture Gallery under this name. During the studies of Tropinin’s heritage, it became clear that the State Russian Museum held a smaller version of Old Woman with a Stocking, and Tretyakov Gallery held a chest-high portrait and a sketch to it.