The artist dedicated many of his literary and art works to peasant children, they are the ones who he created for, who understood him. Faces of children in his paintings and drawings captivate us with their innocence and serene beauty. The portrait of the young maiden “A girl with a hat” is imbued with her inner purity and genuine openness. The girl, who is approximately seven years of age, is depicted against a light, ochre-colored background decorated with balloons of various colors. She is wearing a beautiful hat, which many peasant girls probably dreamt of.

The chosen color scheme is light and warm. Rays of light illuminate the girl, but there is already a tinge of sorrow on her innocent little face. The sadness felt by the child was not lost on the artist. Only someone who was as pure in spirit as a child could have related to and empathized with the inner world of the girl to be able to portray it so vividly. “The young ones need to be encouraged to take an interest in the arts! Our creations ought to be for them, so that they do not grow up in a world devoid of beauty and instead draw inspiration from life. It is important for expressions of an artist”s imagination to evoke positive feelings among the populace and encourage them to do good work, ” thought Yefim Chestnyakov. He strove to bring happiness to people with his works of art and plays, which were staged in nearby villages.

Having grown up in a Russian village, he knew that peasant children started working and faced harsh realities of adult life when they were still young. He wanted to fill the children’s inner world with beauty and inspire their creative side, which every child has. In his native village of Shablovo, Yefim Chestnyakov established a kindergarten, or more accurately a cultural center, where peasant children studied painting, drawing, molding and singing; listened to fairy tales; learned to read, and took part in theater performances. Perhaps the little girl depicted in the portrait ‘A girl in a hat’ was a participant in one of the festive performances. And the artist might have put the unusual for a peasant girl hat on her so that she would feel like a princess from a fairy tale. Many memories of Yefim Chestnyakov lived on among those residents of Shablovo who had known him since childhood and who had studied with him. With great affection and gratitude, they all said that he had taught them to see the beauty of the surrounding nature, and helped them discover the world of art, fairy tales and poetry.