What's going on in Nikolai Koshelev's painting ‘The Female Wanderer’?

The focus of ‘The Female Wanderer’ from 1867 is a peasant hut with a group of people listening spellbound to an elderly woman in simple clothing. She is sitting at a table – apparently having been treated to a meal – and is telling a story, though clearly by heart. The adults seem to be picturing what she's describing. The children are also interested…

In pre-revolutionary Russia, people held wanderers (also called ‘God's people’) in high esteem. Their arrival in a village was an event that brought variety to the monotonous daily life and their stories served as a window into the wider world for the villagers.

At the heart of the wandering lifestyle was the rejection of worldly comforts, possessions and settled life. Wanderers lived on alms (money, food or other items given as charity to poor and needy people - ed.), slept wherever they could and were constantly on the move. For them, the process of movement itself was important, not the final destination.

Among them were both sincere ascetics and those who used this image to wander or even hide from the law. They could be either men or women.

Wanderers were often very devout people and their stories were imbued with religious meaning. They recounted tales, legends and folklore they had heard in other places. For villagers, their stories of visiting holy places and foreign lands were a fascinating journey they could take without leaving their own homes.