His rustic, everyday scenes are celebrated today for their depiction of the Georgia of Pirosmani's lifetime, and he has become one of the country's most beloved artistic figures.

Niko Pirosmani is alleged to be the inspiration for the male protagonist portrayed in the Russian song Million Roses.

[2][3] Pirosmani was born in the Georgian village of Mirzaani to a peasant family in modern-day Kakheti province.

His parents, Aslan Pirosmanashvili and Tekle Toklikishvili, were farmers, who owned a small vineyard, with a few cows and oxen.

In 1872, while living in a little apartment not far from Tbilisi railway station, he worked as a servant to wealthy families and learned to read and write Russian and Georgian.

Although his paintings had some local popularity (about 200 survive) his relationship with professional artists remained uneasy; making a living was always more important to him than aesthetic abstractions.

Pirosmani also was attracted by historical figures and themes such as Shota Rustaveli, King Tamar, Giorgi Saakadze, as well as ordinary Georgian people and their everyday lives.

Unlike other artists, Niko didn't aim at a pure imitation of the nature and paid no attention to details.

Ilia Zhdanevich wrote a letter about Pirosmani to the newspaper Zakavkazskaia Rech, which it published on February 13, 1913.

His continuing poverty, compounded by the economic problems caused by the First World War, meant that his life ended with his work little recognised.

[citation needed] On 31 May 2011, during an investigation, experts discovered a painting, which proved to be "Wounded Soldier" by Pirosmani.

[citation needed] Atroschenko, O., Bulatov, V., Kouteinikova, I., Solovyeva, K. and Schimmelpenninck van der Oye, D., Russia's Unknown Orient: Orientalist Painting 1850-1920, Nai010 Publishers, 2010.