Portrait Of Yulia Yevstafievna Kustodieva

Boris Kustodiev met Julia Evstafyevna Proshinskaya in the fall of 1900 during a trip to a friend in the Kostroma province. Brilliantly educated, independent Julia, working as a typist, attended classes at the drawing school of the Society for the Promotion of Arts in St. Petersburg. January 8, 1903 she became a faithful companion of the artist. At first, everything was cloudless, but then misfortunes fell on the family ... Yulia Evstafievna had to be a nurse, a sister of mercy, a breadwinner, a cook and the first assistant for a sick artist. “Know that you are not alone and your health and you yourself need many more years for a person who loves you and sees in you the one that fate sent him!” - Kustodiev once wrote to her. In the meantime, a portrait of Yu. Proshinskaya in 1903. A few days after meeting the artist decided to paint her portrait - which was done. The artist presented the work to his muse.