Style is nothing, fashion is everything The plot of the painting was born from an article by writer Ivan Goncharov in the ‘Sovermennik’ magazine. In 1848, on its pages, his article ‘Letters of a Metropolitan Friend to a Provincial Groom’ was published anonymously, in which he criticized the fashionistas of the time. “In order to put on trousers of a famous color with stripes, which were only brought today the day before.
.. he would agree to eat a bad dinner for two months,” the author grinned and asked his addressee if he had tried, without warning, “to come to such people’s homes and take them by surprise?” What could happen as a result is exactly what Fedotov depicted.
The hero of the picture is really dressed in a fashionable "oriental look" - he is wearing a cap with an oriental pattern, a silk robe with tassels, trousers and pointed Turkish shoes. He looks as if he’s stepped out of the pages of a fashion magazine - not a single irrelevant item - and lives surrounded by elegant trinkets. There are pictures of ballerinas on the walls and a bust of Franz Liszt above the table.
Theater posters hang on the back of a chair. Even the trash can under the table is in the form of an ancient Greek amphora. A poodle like the emperor's Fedotov's character tries to follow all the trends at once: in the ashtray lies a forgotten cigarette butt, which was in great demand at the time.
His pet is also of the then fashionable breed - a poodle, like Emperor Nicholas I's. .
