At school doors

A second painting of children at school doors from 1897 — alongside the Russian Museum's version from the same year — suggests Bogdanov-Belsky was actively working through this subject in multiple compositions, exploring different angles, figure groupings, or qualities of light. The threshold of the school was clearly a charged subject for him, drawing on his own experience as a child who had stood at precisely such a door in the 1870s before Rachinsky's school changed the course of his life. Painting the same subject twice in the same year was not unusual — artists repeated compositions to satisfy demand, to work through unresolved problems, or to send different versions to different exhibitions. The specific location of this variant is unclear, but its existence alongside the Russian Museum version confirms the subject's importance to Bogdanov-Belsky's 1897 production.

Oil on canvas, likely varying from the Russian Museum version in figure count, composition, or quality of light while maintaining the same subject. Bogdanov-Belsky's approach to repeated subjects was to find fresh angles rather than simply replicate — each version tends to emphasize different aspects of the threshold experience.