The showpiece of the Feodor Chaliapin Estate Museum on Novinsky Boulevard is a waist length portrait of Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin, dressed in a light shirt with an unbuttoned collar, a ribbon with horizontal black white and red stripes around his neck. This is a wonderful embodiment of the spirit of the place.

Although Chaliapin was part of several art circles and was friends with many creative people, he was closest to two artists — Valentin Serov and Konstantin Korovin. In Moscow they formed an inseparable trio of friends: together they visited art exhibitions, theaters, discussed upcoming productions, character depictions, performance design and costume details.

Serov and Korovin closely followed the work of the young singer on each part. Their comments and advice pushed the artist to make important discoveries, inspired him to work on roles. Stanislavsky, in a lecture to the artists of the opera studio, said:

Returning to Moscow from tours, Chaliapin immediately called his friends. His short notes to them vividly characterize their relationship:

The most eloquent evidence of the creative closeness of friends is their collaborative work on the portrait of Feodor Chaliapin in 1904. According to the memoirs of Chaliapin’s children, Konstantin Korovin began to paint the portrait. As the portrait neared its completion, he found it to be a failure and even wanted to destroy it. Feodor Ivanovich, upset by this outcome, tried fiddling with it himself, but to no avail. At that moment Serov came in. When he found out what the matter was, he carefully looked at the canvas, took a brush, made a few daring strokes, and the portrait blossomed. When he offered Korovin to sign the portrait, he refused outright. Then Serov, not at all confused, signed both for himself and for Korovin. Since then, the portrait of Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin has always hung in the estate on Novinsky Boulevard.