Later on, the works of Bolotov, Stakhovsky and that of the painters, who hadn't got academic art education but somehow found acquainted with the "academic" art, were called "primitive". "Well, how could it be, - the connoisseurs often wonder, - that good painting is called primitive?" However, "primitive"- is a mere term, used to identify this particular phenomenon. It has no negative connotation. We are not confused about calling "Archaic", that means "old-fashioned" - one of the periods of Greek art or using the term "gothic", that means "barbaric". Primitive art is a sort of inter-layer between highly professional and folk art.
   "There's no other place where as many people stopped to gaze as at the picture booth at Shchukin court, - writes Gogol'. - At that booth one could find all kinds of curiosities: pictures were mostly painted with oil, lacquered with dark-green polish and mounted in the dark-yellow decorative frames. White winter trees, absolutely red night, which reminds the light of the fire, Flemish man with a pipe and broken arm, who is more alike an Indian cock than a man, - these are the most frequent themes...