[2][3] The painting depicts a large peasant family gathered in a village hut on a winter's evening, illuminated by the glow of a luchina, as adults and children listen with rapt attention to a fairy tale being told by their grandmother.

[Note 1][5] Between the end of 1867 and the beginning of 1868, the painting, under the title Old Woman Telling Fairy Tales on a Winter's Evening, was presented at the exhibition of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, held in St.

[6] In 1870, Maximov was awarded the title of class artist of the 1st degree for his paintings Grandma's Fairy Tales, Dream of the Future (1868), Gathering for a Walk (1869) and Old Woman (1869).

[6][10] Art historian Alexander Zamoshkin wrote that in the painting Grandma's Fairy Tales Maximov "created, avoiding any sentimentality, deeply vital images," and that his pictures of peasant children were particularly heartfelt.

[16] From 1862 onwards, Maximov studied at the Academy of Arts, initially as a free student and subsequently, from 1863 to 1866, in the class of historical painting, where his tutors were Fyodor Bruni, Timofey Neff, Alexey Markov and Pyotr Shamshin.

[6][13] In the same year, 1866, the artist moved to the village of Shubino, Korchevskoy Uyezd, Tver Governorate, where he worked as an art teacher at the estate of the Counts Golenishchev-Kutuzov.

[6][22][8] During his stay in Shubino, the artist conceived the themes of his future paintings, including Grandma's Fairy Tales, Family Section and All in the past.

[26] In his memoirs, Maximov wrote: "I was happy with the decision to live in the village, to be free, to familiarise myself with know peasant life - not through someone else's glasses and not from childhood memories, but in the fullness of my preparation and love.

"[27] As the artist himself states, the entirety of September 1866 was dedicated to "composing the 'Storyteller of Fairy Tales', turning this way and that the original sketch made in Shubin from childhood memories.

In December 1866,[Note 1] Maximov's friend Arseny Shurygin, an artist, visited Lopino to observe the local traditions associated with Christmas and New Year.

In his memoirs, Vassily Maximovich wrote: "Arseny's insistence that I should sooner start serious work made me confess my weakness of will, the sin that I did not suffer from in relation to art."

In an attempt to justify himself, Maximov also cited the impossibility of working on a complex piece in his brother's "tiny cell" or large hut, which was always occupied by members of his family and often by strangers.

His future mother-in-law, Nadezhda Konstantinovna Izmailova, was a great help to Maximov in finding a house for the workshop and negotiating the rent (the final price was three rubles a month).

[47][48] In 1870, Vassily Maximov requested that Pavel Tretyakov send his painting, Grandma's Fairy Tales, from Moscow to St Petersburg for exhibition at the Academy of Arts.

The right corner of the hut is well illuminated, with a large stove and peasant household items, such as a shelf with crockery, a child's blanket, a half-shawl, bundles of dried mushrooms and a trabucco pole.

[50] In her memoirs, Margarita Yamshchikova (pseudonym: Al Altaev) states that the elderly woman Yudishna served as the model for the storyteller of fairy tales.

[50][52][53][54] Researchers of Maximov's work suggest that the image of a young woman breastfeeding a child may have been inspired by Lidia Alexandrovna Izmailova, the artist's future wife.

[49] In a letter to Tretyakov dated 12 December 1870, the artist wrote that "changing the arms would require shortening the breasts and raising the child," after which "the torso would be out of proportion to the rest of the body."

"[55] "The initial idea" of the painting Grandma's Fairy Tales is believed to be the drawing Winter Evening in the Village (paper, pen, sepia, 16.5 × 21 cm, State Russian Museum).

"[5][28] The sketch for the painting Grandma's Fairy Tales (paper, pencil, 20.5 × 28 cm, State Russian Museum),[56] which depicts three peasant women, is dated 3 December 1866,[Note 1] at which time the artist was already in Lopin.

[5] Additionally, the State Russian Museum houses a preliminary drawing of the painting's left side (paper, ink, 43 × 23.1 cm), dated 1867.

[5] It is likely to be the work to which the art historian Alexei Sidorov refers: "for Grandma's Fairy Tales Maximov created brush sketches that show at a glance how important the play of light and shadow was for him.

[5] Additionally, the Tretyakov Gallery houses a reduced reproduction of the painting Grandma's Fairy Tales, created in 1898 (canvas, oil, 27 × 35 cm, inv.

According to Zamoshkin, the artist "approached this subject with great love and, avoiding any sentimentality, [created] deeply vital images", with the pictures of peasant children being particularly heartfelt.

[11] In his writings, Zamoshkin observed that the paintings Grandma's Fairy Tales (1867) and A Sorcerer Comes to a Peasant Wedding (1875) exemplify Maximov's aspiration to an epic form of narration.

[60] In his monograph on Maksimov's work, art historian Alexei Leonov posited that the construction of the painting Grandma's Fairy Tales "is characterised by great thoughtfulness and betrays the academic school through which the master went."

Concurrently, Leonov posits that the elderly female narrator and the old male peasant "represent typical, living faces," while the others, including the breastfeeding woman and the listening children, "are distinguished by features of certain idealisation.

"[61] Leonov observed that at the exhibition of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, where Maximov's work was initially showcased, it enjoyed well-deserved success "as a thing that truthfully conveys one of the attractive scenes of village life, warmly and intimately outlining the types and characters of peasants.