Portrait of Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov

In 1913, while active in Moscow, Aleksei Morgunov depicted artists Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov, fellow members in the avant-garde group known as the Donkey’s Tail. When Morgunov made the portrait, he had just returned from traveling in France, Germany, and Italy. The painting’s composition echoes two works he might have seen on his trip: Luncheon in the Studio (1868) and A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882), both by French artist Édouard Manet. Morgunov combined references to Manet’s work with a background that evokes Russian folk images and vernacular traditions, which the Donkey’s Tail favored over Francocentric tendencies in modern art.