Not only the noblemen were the patrons of primitive painting, but broader population too: merchants, petty bourgeois, craftsmen - in the cities, wealthy peasants - in the country. We can learn a lot about the official events and the realia of every-day life of the middle-class through meticulous paintings.
   "Through the whole winter the women's job is spinning thread, feeding little animals and helping men in handling the cattle. From March till June they are weaving canvas and cloth, worsted embroidering tablecloths and shawls, digging in the garden, planting vegetables and helping men in mowing the lawns. In June the are fertilising the soil with manure, in July they are haymaking, weeding and picking flax, then creeping it, in August they start reaping rye, picking and creeping flax, trimming sheep, in September - finish with reaping, picking up vegetables, crushing and scutching flax, in October they help threshing" ("Kameral'noye opisanie Kashinskogo uezda Tverskoy gubernii").