Portrait of Chaliapin

The Portrait of Chaliapin is a painting by Boris Kustodiev, created in 1921 in Petrograd (modern day Saint Petersburg). At this time the opera singer Feodor Chaliapin was preparing to perform in Alexander Serov's opera The Power of the Fiend in the former Mariinsky Theatre. He invited Boris Kustodiev to create artwork for the performance.

The upheaval caused by the February and October Revolutions and the Russian Civil War led to desperate conditions in the cities. The currency was devalued and there was no money for the theatre to pay Chaliapin for his performance.

Instead the theatre offered Chaliapin a rich fur coat, taken from a Soviet warehouse containing items confiscated from rich people during the revolution. Chaliapin wore the coat on a visit to Kustodiev to invite him to design artworks for the performance. Kustodiev was ill at the time and was unable to walk. When Kustodiev lear…

摘自英文维基百科「Portrait of Chaliapin」（CC BY-SA 4.0），暂时没有中文条目。