“The Fair” was commissioned by the Expedition for the Preparation of Government Securities (Goznak, the State Administration for the Issue of Bank Notes) for a series of Luboks in the publication “Narodnye Izdaniya”. Kustodiev portrayed the fair in Kineshma that had so impressed him once with its striking decorativeness that he chose “The Village Fair” as the theme for his diploma. In a letter to his artist friend I. Kulikov, he wrote: “... Today I walked around Kineshma and looked at everything: this is a very beautiful town with such a typical local physiognomy. It is especially good beyond the river, where there are two churches with really weird shapes. I want to go there tomorrow to do a sketch, ?...? there are many interesting things, yesterday I was especially struck by the markets, there were surprisingly powerful colors, and it will probably be my choice; rather than to invent all sorts of “plots”, one only needs to borrow from nature, which is infinitely more diverse than all that has been invented. We are going on Saturday evening. On Saturday there will be a bazaar, and I want to see more...”

In the background, there are two recognizable Kineshma churches (now defunct): Voskresenskaya (Nikolaevskaya) and Krestovozdvizhenskaya (Kazan). Against their background, a traditional trade unfolds. Fairs were held in Kineshma twice a year, on St Tikhon’s Day, June 16 (by the Julian calendar), the Tikhon Fair began, and the second, larger fair (Krestovozdvizhenskaya) started on September 14 (by the Julian calendar) and continued until October. Following the style of folk art, the artist created the painting without showing perspective, but he put the main emphasis on its brightness and decorativeness. Kustodiev’s fair is a festival without which the life of the people is impossible. He would respond to critics with: “I consider the variety of bright colors to be very typical of Russian life”.

The project of the Expedition for the Preparation of Government Securities was never implemented. In 1907, “The Fair” was shown at the exhibition of the Union of Russian Artists; it was a great success and the painting was acquired by the Council of the Tretyakov Gallery. A. Lunacharsky wrote in his review of the exhibition, “His brightly colored, cheerful, simple and buoyant “Fair”, captured by a clear eye, a lively mind, a compassionate heart, and a strong hand, painted with kind and courageous humor... is almost a poem...”