Nikolai Bogatov. A Beekeeper. 1875

A Beekeeper (Nikolai Bogatov, 1875)

There is an interesting detail to this painting. Note well that the peasant beekeeper is reading, meaning that he is literate, a minority amongst the peasantry at that time. The ribbon bookmark seems to imply that the text is religious in nature, which means further that he is probably an Old Ritualist (Staro-obraztsy, called “Old Believers” in the West, a misnomer) or some other sort of sectarian.