This work goes in pair with another work by the same painter — “Sofa Room”.

Both rooms were located in the Bogdanovskoye estate of the noble family of the Filosofovs and reflect the atmosphere of a manor house back in the day.

The painting was presumably created by Alexander Alexandrovich Alekseyev — one of the students of the painter Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov. The work could be painted during the visit that the mentor and his students paid to the estate.

Alexander Alekseyev was a serf boy and lived in the village of Lubenki, Kashinsky district, Tver Governorate. Soon he became an apprentice to Nikifor Stepanovich Krylov — a painter and iconographer of an itinerant artel. The representatives of this artel painted the iconostasis located in the estate of the Putyatin princes.

After that, together with Nikifor Krylov, Alekseyev began studying under Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov, who noticed the gifted young man in April 1825. Such a turn in Alekseyev’s life became possible because Venetsianov’s estate was located near both his hometown and the estate of the Putyatin princely family in the Tver Governorate.

In 1826, Alexander Alekseyev became a fellow of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts and a student of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts. In 1827, Alekseyev received the silver medal of the Academy, two years later — a gold medal for the painting “Perspective View of Venetsianov’s Studio”, which was shown at the exhibition of the Academy in 1827.

In 1832, he was emancipated from serfdom and received the title of a free artist. That same year, he started working as a teacher.

Alekseyev taught drawing at educational institutions in the Pskov, Arkhangelsk, and Olonets governorates. He was also employed at the Pskov governorate gymnasium, where he taught penmanship and draftsmanship. He quit in 1855 due to an eye disease.

In 1870, he became a teacher at the Novorzhevsky District School. Two years later, he passed away in poverty.

The stylistic features of Alexey Venetsianov’s style in the work “Living Room”, kept in the museum’s collection, suggest that it was painted by Alexander Alekseyev. Following the classicism rules, the living room of the house in the Bogdanovskoye estate was the most richly furnished room. This is evidenced by the interior, consisting of mirrors between the windows, elegantly upholstered furniture made of Karelian birch, which is placed symmetrically along the walls, paintings in massive, gilded frames, and marble sculptures. This detailed manner of painting from life hints at a student of Venetsianov’s.