Portrait of N.P. Barsukov, 1902

N.P. Barsukov was a Russian historian and bibliographer, author of a monumental multi-volume biography of the Slavophile theologian and public figure Metropolitan Filaret, as well as important archival work on Russian literary history. His portrait by Bogdanov-Belsky in 1902, held in the Russian Museum, connects the painter to the world of Russian scholarship and cultural history. A portrait of a historian and bibliographer would differ in character from Bogdanov-Belsky's aristocratic commissions — likely more modest in setting, emphasizing intellectual rather than social prestige, with the sitter's books or working environment as context. The Russian Museum's holding places this work within its collection of Russian cultural figures, where it serves as an image of a type — the dedicated Russian scholar — as much as a specific individual likeness.

Oil on canvas with a portrait approach suited to an intellectual sitter — likely a more interior and contemplative composition than his formal aristocratic portraits. Bogdanov-Belsky's handling of the face would concentrate on conveying the accumulated intelligence and scholarly temperament of the sitter. Any books or papers would be rendered specifically rather than generically.