The Merry Wife portrait was painted by artist Alexander Hoffman. His name is rarely mentioned in art books, information about the artist varies, and even the date of his death is indicated approximately. The little that is known about him is that he lived in two capital cities of Russia: he studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1881-1887, and later at the Moscow School of Sculpture and Architecture. In Moscow, Hoffmann lived until 1904, where he was busy painting landscapes and portraits and often participated in art exhibitions. 

He did the Merry Wife a bit earlier, in the 1890s.
The woman in the portrait stands with folded hands and a trace of a haughty smile on her face. She is dressed in a national costume, embroidered with gold and pearl threads. The artist delicately wrought out the face, the complex headpiece with a bow, the coral and sapphire bead necklaces, while the sweeping strokes of the white paint over smoky shades helped to visually convey the texture of the starchy shirt. The artist had one of his models to pose for him, while the costume elements were obtained from antiquity collectors.

For a long time Merry Wife was held in a private collection. In 1996, it was acquired by the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug Generations Fund at the Alpha Art auction in Moscow. In 2011, Merry Wife was transferred to the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts of Khanty-Mansiysk.