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   "The merchants of our century, - witnesses the contemporary, - are dressed like the noblemen and they've got relevant education and manners; he would never speak to you in an old-fashioned pathetic style based on the pompous primitive language adding "s" at the end which has been mocked long time ago, which is always combined with trivial self-abasement; you would never see bad manners, which are quite common among the people of his class; modern merchant is indeed a social man, well educated, feeling comfortable in the high society, who has acquired the manners and decencies of an educated man...


Vasiliev Mikhail. 1784 - after 1839
Portrait of V.N.Basnin. 1821
Oil on canvas. 76 õ 60,5
SHM



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