The portrait from the museum collection depicts a merchant of the first guild and an honorary citizen of Irkutsk Nikolay Basnin. The Basnin family comes from Kholmogory, a village in the Arkhangelsk region, which Nikolay’s grandfather left for Siberia in the 18th century. In 1829, the Basnins settled down in Irkutsk. Their merchant dynasty was widely known in Siberia and the Ural region, as well as in the neighboring countries of China and Mongolia, and, of course, in St. Petersburg and Moscow. The Basnins traded in fur and cloth, they brought luxurious fabrics, jewelry, tableware and tea to the capital from China. Nikolay’s brother Peter was a famous Irkutsk painter, and his son Vasily was a noted collector of art owning the largest private library in Siberia.
The portrait of Nikolay Basnin has a traditional composition; the colors are subdued. The model’s appearance and clothes would rather suit a nobleman that a merchant.
The pair portrait depicts Nikolay Basnin’s wife Melania, a peasant’s daughter. The writer Ekaterina Avdeeva-Poleva reminisced about the marriages in Siberia, “Perhaps there are few other places in Russia where marriages are so impartial. The parents and the groom considered it the most important thing that the bride was good-looking and complying and that her family”s reputation was good. People used to say, “It is better to take a wife without a dowry, but from a good family.” The calm expression on her face, the half-smile, slightly touching her lips, create the impression that Melania Basnina was mild-mannered and kind. Her dress is a quaint combination of the elements characteristic for the merchant class and the nobility.
Mikhail Vasiliev is one of the few Irkutsk artists of the first half of the 19th century, whose name has survived to this day. Having graduated from the Irkutsk public school, he taught drawing at the men’s gymnasium in 1805–1819. The surviving Vasiliev’s portraits can be attributed to the influence of the Siberian icon painting.
Today, there are more than ten works by Mikhail Vasiliev that are known. Four portraits, which feature the Irkutsk merchant Vasily Basnin and his family members, are housed in the State Historical Museum in Moscow. The Irkutsk Art Museum displays eight portraits by the artist.
The portrait of Nikolay Basnin has a traditional composition; the colors are subdued. The model’s appearance and clothes would rather suit a nobleman that a merchant.
The pair portrait depicts Nikolay Basnin’s wife Melania, a peasant’s daughter. The writer Ekaterina Avdeeva-Poleva reminisced about the marriages in Siberia, “Perhaps there are few other places in Russia where marriages are so impartial. The parents and the groom considered it the most important thing that the bride was good-looking and complying and that her family”s reputation was good. People used to say, “It is better to take a wife without a dowry, but from a good family.” The calm expression on her face, the half-smile, slightly touching her lips, create the impression that Melania Basnina was mild-mannered and kind. Her dress is a quaint combination of the elements characteristic for the merchant class and the nobility.
Mikhail Vasiliev is one of the few Irkutsk artists of the first half of the 19th century, whose name has survived to this day. Having graduated from the Irkutsk public school, he taught drawing at the men’s gymnasium in 1805–1819. The surviving Vasiliev’s portraits can be attributed to the influence of the Siberian icon painting.
Today, there are more than ten works by Mikhail Vasiliev that are known. Four portraits, which feature the Irkutsk merchant Vasily Basnin and his family members, are housed in the State Historical Museum in Moscow. The Irkutsk Art Museum displays eight portraits by the artist.
