The museum house of Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev is at the intersection of Sverdlov and Kalinin streets. Kustodiev was born in Astrakhan in 1878. And when he became a famous painter, he often came to the native town.
Kustodiev painted many pictures. You can see them at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, as well as in the picture galleries of many cities of Russia. Kustodiev is mostly known for his pictures of women with ample curves.
From the age of 15 Kustodiev began to take lessons in painting from Pavel Vlasov. At the museum a separate room is devoted to the works of Vlasov and the early pictures of Kustodiev painted under the supervision of Vlasov.
When Kustodiev was 18 (1896) he entered the Petersburg Academy of Arts and in 1909, upon the recommendation of Repin and some other professors Kustodiev was elected member of academy. By that time he already was a famous Russian painter.
Kustodiev painted portraits in his own unique style (the main character of a portrait is much bigger than the rest of the picture). «Shalyapin» and «Bolshevik» are bright examples of his style. Also, he is famous for the pictures depicting the everyday life of merchants featuring corpulent women, such as «The Merchant`s Wife», «The Beauty», «Russian Venus». It is believed that just these pictures are a reminder of the merchant Astrakhan.
