Portrait of Olga Wassiljewna Surikowa, the artist's daughter (Girl with Doll)

Painted in 1888 and held at the Tretyakov Gallery, this portrait of Surikov's daughter Olga is an intimate family work painted in the middle of his great decade of historical compositions. The combination of the formal portrait mode — the title uses the word "Portrait" — with the informal subject of a child holding a doll creates a work that sits between official portraiture and domestic genre painting. Surikov's daughters appear in several of his works: his daughter Elena was the model for the figure of Menshikov's daughter in "Menshikov in Berezovo," and family members frequently sat for character studies. The doll introduced into the portrait gives Olga something to interact with rather than simply facing the viewer, relaxing the formal requirements of portrait sitting for a child. The painting is held at the Tretyakov Gallery, Surikov's primary institutional home.

Surikov treats the child's portrait with warmth and directness, the handling looser and less formal than his major historical commissions. The doll in the child's arms introduces a secondary object that grounds the composition and gives the small figure something to hold. The colour palette is lighter than Surikov's historical work, appropriate to a child's portrait.