Saratov State Art Museum. A. N. Radishcheva, Saratov “Bogolyubov is a great person, there is a lot of simplicity, frankness, youthful fervor” – these words of young Repin vividly characterize the human qualities of the owner of a workshop on Batignol Boulevard, which was called “Russian Paris”.
Bogolyubov took care of young retired artists of the Academy, often traveled with them to sketches, arranged orders and sales of their paintings. He was able to combine the execution of official instructions of members of the imperial family and the Council of the Academy of Fine Arts with the role of a senior friend and teacher.
The portrait was painted by Repin in June 1882 in one three-hour session. In a letter to I. Kramsky, Bogolyubov assesses the portrait: “He took a free kick one day and wrote my old head in such a way that I had an incomparable imprint in the most peaceful posture.”