The Portrait of Chaliapin is a painting by Boris Kustodiev, created in 1921 in Petrograd (modern day St. Petersburg). At this time the opera singer Feodor Chaliapin was preparing to perform in Alexander Serov's opera The Power of the Fiend in the former Mariinsky Theatre. He invited Boris Kustodiev to create artwork for the performance. The Soviet government had allocated only a small room to Kustodiev, and there was not enough space to work on a single canvas. Instead Kustodiev painted it in parts. Chaliapin talked about himself as he posed, and at times they sang together.