Undated
oil on canvas
54 x 67

Shilder continued the traditions of P.A. Fedotov and addressed the question of temptation and honest poverty. A procuress dressed in lace and ribbons offers to a girl living with his ailing mother on miserable earnings from embroidery an expensive bracelet for favouring a man whose face we just barely can see in the doorway. The content of the painting is similar to one by P.A Fedotov – ‘For a poor girl beauty is a fatal tress’ (Mousetrap) (sepia, 1846, State Tretyakov Gallery). Shilder makes the atmosphere of the scene gloomier and the mime and gestures of the main characters more sharp. The didactic pathos of the painting is revealed in a simple allegory – in the foreground a cat is depicted lying in wait for a mouse. Temptation was one of the two first works by Russian artists which P.M. Tretyakov purchased for his collection.

at 10, Lavrushinsky Lane, Hall 16