[3] In the fall of 1849, the canvas, titled "Correction of Circumstances, or Matchmaking", was exhibited at the Academy of Arts along with two other earlier paintings by the artist, "The Fresh Cavalier" (1846) and "The Discerning Bride" (1847).

[3] Art historian Galina Leontieva wrote that "Major's marriage proposal" is "one of the most remarkable works of Russian painting of the first half of the 19th century", which "due to the amazing truth of the characters, the significance of the problem raised in it turned out to be much more serious than the original idea of the artist".

[7] A variant of "Major's marriage proposal", which the artist worked on in 1850-1852, is kept in the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg (canvas, oil, 56×76 cm, inv.

[11] At the end of 1843 Pavel Fedotov, who had served about ten years in the Finnish Life Guards Regiment resigned, settled on line 16 of Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg and devoted himself entirely to artistic activity.

[3] At the request of Karl Bryullov, Fedotov received 700 rubles in commissions from the Imperial Academy of Arts to complete the painting,[14][15] which could be used, among other things, for the models, costumes, and other materials.

[16] According to the sculptor Nikolai Ramazanov, who was a friend of the artist, while working on "Major's marriage proposal" Fedotov "did not allow himself to do anything without nature" — the bride's dress was specially ordered for the occasion; many other things, "down to the smallest detail", were bought or rented by him.

After Pryanishnikov's death in 1867, the painting was transferred to the Rumyantsev Museum in Moscow; in its catalog, published in 1915, it had a double title — "The Arrival of the Bridegroom (Major's marriage proposal)".

[9][8] Although the action and the position of the characters are generally preserved, the version in the Russian Museum has a number of significant differences from the painting in the Tretyakov Gallery.

Then their circle widens; they end up marrying a merchant's daughter who can play the piano, with a hundred thousand or so in cash and a bunch of fraternal relatives".

[25] Such a marriage could be seen as beneficial for both parties: the officer would receive a dowry that could be used to improve his financial situation, and the merchant would have the opportunity to be related to the nobleman and thus rise in the eyes of society.

Judging by the nature of the scene, the negotiations with the bride's parents had been conducted in advance by the matchmaker, and we see the future bridegroom's first visit to the merchant's house, where he is awaited with great impatience.

According to the art historian Dmitry Sarabianov, Fedotov "gathered everything into a common mechanism, as if he had "spun" the action from a single starting point and "launched" it in different directions, making his characters move and interact with each other.

[34] In addition to the sitters, Fedotov also used a previously acquired mannequin with movable joints, dressing it in the clothes of various characters and giving it the required poses.

[2] The room is filled with things that show the owners' desire to live "in the capital", but at the same time the "wrong" combination of various objects reveals patriarchal habits and creates a comic effect: for example, the dining table is not covered with a white tablecloth, but with a pink one with stitching on the edges.

Despite the fact that the artist called the Major "fat," "his figure is taut, eyes slightly squinted, in the mustache hides a victorious grin — he clearly expects a favorable outcome of the upcoming "battle"".

[39] It is believed that the image of the Major was given to the artist relatively easily — taking into account his creative experience and observations made during a ten-year service in the Life Guards of the Finnish Regiment.

[6][40] To create the figure of Major Fedotov posed a familiar officer, and the face he wrote from himself, "looking in the mirror, giving himself just a minute of some smugness and something to adjust his features".

[42] In his poetic description, Fedotov wrote: "As a merchant owner, / The bride's father, / Does not get along with the coat, / He is more familiar with other clothes; / How he beats, puffs, / Buttoning in a hurry; / Naspashku take — disrespectful".

[43] The image of a merchant did not come to the artist's mind for a long time, and during his walks in the Apraksin and Great Gostiny Dvor he persistently searched for a suitable type.

[43] According to the artist himself, he met the realization of his ideal, "and no lucky man who was assigned the most pleasant rendezvous could not be more pleased with his beauty than I was with my red beard and fat belly".

[46] The absurdity of the situation is emphasized by the fact that the merchant's daughter's outfit is intended for a ball or other evening event, and not for meeting the groom, which takes place during the day in the family circle;[48] in addition, she is unaccustomed to the immense amount of gold jewelry — rings, necklaces, earrings, bracelets.

Judging by the fact that Fedotov placed the merchant's hand holding her daughter by the hem almost in the middle of the canvas, he gave this detail great importance.

Fedotov drew the figures of the sitter and the housekeepers from the regulars of the Tolkuchy and St. Andrew's markets, and the cook from the servants of the Flugov family whom he knew.

Apparently, the artist felt that "its size distracted attention, and its position exactly in the center of the canvas broke the painting in half and disturbed the integrity of the perception of the whole scene.

Fedotov tries to remove the secondary details that overload the story in order to focus the audience's attention on the main thing and to give the situation portrayed in the picture more poignancy.

This is evidenced by dozens of surviving sketches and studies, which the artist used to determine the composition of the scene, the figures of the actors, as well as their poses and mutual position in the plane of the canvas.

In particular, Fedotov worked a lot on the image of the merchant, long and carefully searching for a way to depict the fidgety gesture of his hands while trying to cope with an unfamiliar coat.

The artist also created many variants of the face and figure of the merchant's daughter, changing the gestures of her hands, the tilt of her head, and her facial features — until he was able to "express most clearly in her appearance, the way she holds those feelings that she has at the moment — token excitement, the desire to show her shyness and modesty".

He wrote that these paintings "depicted scenes completely taken from real life, full of profound thoughts and healthy humor, interesting both for art connoisseurs and for the profane.

The artist raises a number of very relevant for that period of issues related to the alleged mesalliance — marriage of a young, ruined major on the merchant's daughter.