The term "provincial art" in this context does not denote the artists’ regional origin, but rather their lack of academic training. Figuratively speaking, the "provincial" portrait exists as a kind of "periphery" in relation to "educated art".

The exhibition includes both acknowledged masterpieces of provincial portraiture from the first half of the 19th century and pictures that have never been exhibited before. Its main objectives are to reveal original work previously concealed beneath later overpainting and to draw attention to the artistic merits of such pictures. This has been made possible through the painstaking work of conservators from the State Hermitage Museum and the Saint Petersburg Repin Academy of Arts, who have prepared dozens of paintings for the project.

A total of 80 paintings are on display, most of which will be seen by the wider public for the first time. Among them are portraits of men, women, children and families – works both by unknown painters and by artists whose names have been preserved.

A number of the paintings were attributed during the preparation for the exhibition. Researchers have succeeded in identifying several of the artists and sitters.

The exhibition’s curator is Yury Yuryevich Gudymenko, Leading Researcher in the State Hermitage’s Department of the History of Russian Culture.

An illustrated catalogue has been prepared for the exhibition, featuring texts by Yury Yuryevich Gudymenko and Valery Yuryevich Brovkin, an artist-restorer of the highest category from the Laboratory for the Scientific Restoration of Easel Paintings.