“ABA Gallery”, New York
There is Maria Nikiforovna Burliuk (nee Yelenevskaya), the artist's wife, depicted. More than half a century she was his guardian angel, faithful friend, invisible participant in all endeavors, muse and model. During their long life together Burliuk manages to paint many portraits of his wife, where her soulful face radiates a clear light. For the artist, she has always been a model of tenderness, a symbol of female mystery. Most of the female characters in his artworks — whether they are peasant women in shawls or vice versa, dreamy young ladies — have a resemblance to Mary’s face.
Maria Burliuk was the first biographer of her husband. After moving to America Marusya, as Burliuk called her, published the magazine "Color and Rhyme". It was released from 1930 to 1970; during these years 66 issues were published. The magazine became a kind of chronicle of the time and cultural life of America, and first of all – the lives of Russian immigrants and friends of the Burliuk family. The magazine became a kind of chronicle of the time and cultural life of America, and first of all – the lives of Russian immigrants and friends of the Burliuk family. In one of the latest publications, Maria Burliuk published excerpts from her diaries, where she most often wrote about her husband's work.
The picture was painted in the Japanese period. Maria’s corporality, emphasized in the composition, demonstrates what Burliuk did not find in Japanese women. The artist told about local ladies the following: "Lack of feminine charms, bust. Covered by tight kimono narrow pelvis, skinny — there is no room for sensual seduction". It can be said that in this canvas Burliuk asserts his ideal of beauty, embodied in Marusya — full-breasted, with emphasized feminine outlines of the hips.