The First Lubok Exhibition took place 19-24 February 1913 at the Moscow School of Art, Sculpture, and Architecture. Despite its short duration, this display, organised by the architect, collects or, and restorer Nikolai Dmitrievich Vinogradov (1885-1980), together with Mikhail Larionov, marked an important moment in the revival of traditional forms of visual culture in Russia. Alongside historical examples from Vinogradov's and Larionov's personal collects ions, contemporary lubki by Natalia Goncharova were on view: 'Russian and Chinese popular prints were mounted on walls a few feet away from Goncharova’s own studies for "contemporary Russian Broadsheets", which she intended to have mass-produced and distributed' (Jane Sharp, Russian Modernism Between East and West. Natalia Goncharova and the Moscow Avant-Garde, Cambridge, New York, 2006, p.167). Among the works Goncharova showed at this important exhibition was the present gouache, The Life of the Holy Martyrs Florus and Laurus, dated 1912-1913.

In its aesthetic, this impressive work, telling the life of the two martyrs, blends the lubok and the Russian Orthodox icon. These references were particularly important for Goncharova at the t.mes , as both were distinctly Russian and defied the canonical divisions between high and low art. The simplified architectural forms and body shapes, the flattened perspective, and the extensive use of decorative ornament, as well as the focus on building form and rhythm through colour, all highlight her fascination with these genres. Equally notable are the work’s deliberate handcrafted quality and Goncharova’s use of colloquial 'Frol' in the inscription as opposed to the formal version of the name, 'Flor'.

Florus and Laurus are known as protectors of horses and have been important for the Russian peasantry. In both its form and subject matter, the work therefore continues Goncharova’s exploration of peasant traditions, which she focused on in her oils of the period. Other surviving lubki from Vinogradov’s exhibition include Saint Barbara (1912-1913, State Tretyakov Gallery) and John the Baptist (early 1910s, private collects ion, Moscow). The latter is only known in its entirety from a black and white photograph preserved in the State Tretyakov Gallery archive (Natalia Goncharova. Between East and West, Moscow, 2013, pp.258 and 424) and has since been cut into fragments. This makes the present work, fully preserved in its original form, a unique example from this key period in Goncharova’s artistic career, particularly since their intended mass production via the Altsiona publishing house was never realised.

The historical context in which The Life of the Holy Martyrs Florus and Laurus was created is paramount. Just a month after Vinogradov’s exhibition, Larionov organised another display, The Lubok and Original Icon Painting Exhibition, at Mikhailova’s Art Salon in Bolshaya Dmitrovka, showing examples from his and Goncharova's extensive collects ions. The show was accompanied by a catalogue, to which Goncharova contributed an article on Hindu and Persian broadsides, highlighting the purity of the medium and the overall 'depth of spirit' and 'closeness to nature' intrinsic to Eastern cultures (Vystavka ikonopisnykh podlinnikov i lubkov organizovannaya M.F. Larionovym, Moscow, 1913, p.12). Several larger shows were held the same year, including an extensive survey of ancient Russian icons celebrating 300 years of the Romanov rule, which presented them as unique and long-overlooked art objects. These displays served as a culmination of a decade-long process that saw Russian cultural circles turning towards the country's artistic past as a source of inspiration. Against their backdrop, several ground-breaking avant-garde exhibitions took place, such as Donkey's Tail and Target, whose participants, including Goncharova and Larionov, openly rejected the supremacy of Western artistic influences and promoted a closer investigation of national traditions.

1913 was also a key year for Goncharova personally. In September, a large solo exhibition of her work opened at Mikhailova's Art Salon, which included over 800 works that the artist had created since 1900. The exhibition solidified Goncharova's position at the forefront of Russian avant-garde and affirmed her 'turn towards the East', which she famously commented on in the following way in the catalogue preface: 'Now I shake the dust from my feet and leave the West, considering its vulgarising significance trivial and insignificant – my path is toward the source of all arts, the East. The art of my country is incomparably more profound and important than anything that I know in the West (…) I am opening up the East again, and I am certain that many will follow me along this path' (Vystavka kartin Natalii Sergeevny Goncharovoi 1900-1913, Moscow, 1913, p.1). The Life of the Holy Martyrs Florus and Laurus, included in the artist's 1913 retrospective (fig.1) and listed in the publication on Goncharova and Larionov by Eli Eganbury (Ilya Zdanevich) from the same year, can be seen as a visual embodiment of this shift, which profoundly influenced not only Goncharova's own subsequent work, including for the stage and in fashion, but, equally, the work of her multiple peers from the Russian avant-garde realm and beyond.