Venetsianov’s pupil Alexei Tyranov diligently portrayed Elizaveta Kovrigina, the wife of an enterprising merchant, in the ball attire of a society lady. Her satin dress and turban resemble least of all the traditional Russian dress that was normal for merchants’ wives. The boundaries between the classes were increasingly erased – at least when it came to ordinary life. Yulia Demidenko Russia Women:From the Mother of God to Comrade // Exhibition catalogue of the Russian Museum in Málaga «Female images in Russian art». 2018. P. 17.

Elizaveta Petrovna Kovrigina (née Yankina, ? – 1899) was the wife of Daniil Ilyich Kovrigin (1807?–1865), a wealthy merchant and art collector. Kovrigin supported artists by purchasing their work or ordering portraits of members of his family from them. From Alexei Tyranov, for instance, he ordered companion portraits of himself and his wife. Gradually, the Kovrigins’ house began to fill with works of art. Daniil Kovrigin’s descendants also engaged in collecting. In 1923, the “Museum of a Merchant’s Life in the 1840s–1860s” was opened in the Kovrigins’ mansion and lasted for just over a year. Works of art and household items were handed over to the State Museum Fund, from which the companion portraits of the Kovrigins ended up in the Russian Museum. Exhibition catalogue of the Russian Museum in Málaga «Female images in Russian art». 2018. P. 94.