Society and Culture: Photo exhibition "The Famous Stranger Boris Kustodiev" from the collections of the Astrakhan Art Gallery presented in Irkutsk

The Museum Studio of the Irkutsk Regional Local Lore Museum launched a photo exhibition "The Famous Stranger Boris Kustodiev", arranged by the P. M. Dogadin Astrakhan Art Gallery. The exposition spotlights the little-known pages of the life and oeuvre by the outstanding Russian artist. The fact is that the author of such famous paintings as The Merchant's Wife at Tea, Russian Venus, Portrait of Fyodor Shalyapin and others, was also a talented photographer.

The first project "The Famous Stranger Boris Kustodiev" was prepared for the 135th artist's anniversary in 2013 and featured 45 photographs taken by Kustodiev and some of his relatives in 1900-1912. All pictures were taken in Kostroma Province, where the family spent summer vacations within 15 years. The project began with a gift by Boris Kustodiev's descendants in 2009. The artist's granddaughter, art critic, specialist of the State Hermitage Museum, Tatyana Kustodieva, donated to the Astrakhan Art Gallery a family album with 113 art photographs.

The Irkutsk exhibition features 20 photographs. The pictures are portraits of Boris Kustodiev's family and Boris Polenov, a friend, scientist and professor of geology. There are also views of the Pavlovskoye estate, which belonged to Polenov. The estate is famous thanks to Boris Kustodiev's paintings The Red House and Portrait of the Polenov Family, which was one of the favourite resting places of the great artist.

The exhibition provides an opportunity to look into the family album saved by the master's relatives. The visitor may see young and happy Boris and Yulia Kustodiev, their children and the construction of Terem, the artist's workshop.

The photographs are showcased in the furniture exposition and recreate the atmosphere of the living room of the XIX - early XX centuries.