Painter, graphic artist, scene-designer Vasily Shukhaev was born to peasant family. He became an orphan at an early age. But due to the little inheritance of his grandfather, he entered the class of embossing at the Stroganov School of Industrial Art in 1897.In 1906 he graduated from the School with the title of master of drawing. In 1906 he moved to St. Petersburg. After studying at private studios, he entered the Academy of Fine Arts.He became good friends with A. E. Yakovlev. Temperament and art manner of these two artists were very similar, sometimes even indistinguishable.Vasily Shukhayev and Alexander Yakovlev were the representatives of Neoclassicism in the World of Art. Harlequin and Pierrot resurrects the form of the classical portrait, with its academically distinct drawing, chiaroscuro modelling of form, local colours and textureless application of the paint. In the early 1910s, the two artists performed in Arthur Schnitzler’s pantomime Colombine’s Scarf at the House of Interludes in St Petersburg. Yakovlev played the part of Harlequin and Shukhayev was Pierrot.