The Genealogy of Pavel M. Tretyakov can be traced only to the third degree, as all the archives of the town of Maloyaroslavets, from where his ancestry originated, were burnt down in 1812, during the retreat of the Napoleon Army.
This was an ancient, but modest merchant family. In 1774, at the age of seventy Yelisei Martynovich, great-grandfather of Pavel Tretyakov, arrived in Moscow with his family, which included his wife Vasilisa Trifonovna, daughter of the Maloyaroslavets merchant Trifon Bychkov, and two sons - Zakhar and Osip. The third guild merchant, Elisei Martynovich settled down with his family in the district of the St Alexis Church between Tverskaya and Nikitskaya Streets.
In 1795, when the parents had already died Zakhar Yeliseyevich with his wife Lukerya Yakovlevna and their four children settled in their "own house in the Yakimansky part of the St Alexis Church district, which was in Golutvin's Babiy Gorodok". After his wife's death the widower with five little children got married for a second time. In 1801 his new wife Avdotya Vasilyevna gave birth to his son Mikhail, and in 1808 Sergei was born. After the death of Zakhar Yeliseyevich, the family inherited a small house in Nikolo-Golutvin, five adjoining shops on close to the canvas and gold lace rows and also money, which was paid to the Board of Trustees till the junior sons came of age.
Despite his young age, Mikhail Zakharovich displayed the skills of an experienced and energetic businessman who succeeded in trading. A wide selection of textiles (pestryad, canvas, ticking, dimity) was always in stock in his shops. When in 1831, his brother Sergei passed away, he got his share of the family property under Sergei's testament and became much richer than his brothers.
In 1831, Mikhail Zakharovich married Alexandra Danilovna Borisova, daughter of a wealthy businessman selling suet to England. At first his father-in-law considered his daughter's marriage unequal, but time showed that his son-in-law was incredibly skilful and shrewd. In 1832, the first son of the young couple - Pavel Tretyakov - was born.
Pavel began assisting his father at a young age. Together with his younger brother Sergei he performed the duties of an "errand boy" in the shop. They helped clerks, ran errands, took away garbage.
Mikhail Zakharovich was a man of poor health. In 1847 he wrote his will with "advice to wife and family on how to live, and assignments for successors to own the property". Appointing his wife to be the trustee of his children, Mikhail Zakharovich specified that if Pavel came of age by the moment of his death, he should be the second trustee. The head of the family also enjoined to "keep the daughters under family guard and marry them in due time to proper men. As for the sons Pavel and Sergei - they should be brought up in close connection with trade and people of their class […] and properly educated". Mikhail Zakharovich died in 1850 at the age of forty-nine. After his death a new will was announced. According to it, Aleksanrda Danylovna was to manage the family business until the younger son Sergei turned 25.
In 1852, in view of the forthcoming wedding of the sister Elizaveta Mikhailovna and the senior clerk Vladimir Konshin, the brothers decided to acquire lodgings - a house with a huge courtyard and a garden in the district of the St Nicholas Church in Tolmachi. The newly-weds occupied two rooms with a view over the garden downstairs. Next to them, there were the brothers' rooms. Sister Sophia with mother settled in two rooms on the second floor, and the junior sister Nadezhda with her governess lived in the mezzanine. Behind the house there was a beautiful shady garden.
After her husband's death, Alexandra Danylovna was "temporarily" considered a second guild merchant woman and passed the family business on to her sons in 1859. They made Elizaveta's husband their new partner. In 1860 the "Shop of linen, cotton and woolen goods, produced in Russia and abroad, of the Trading House of the Brothers P. and S. Tretyakov and V. Konshin was launched on Ilyinka Street, opposite the Exchange in the facility of the Joseph's Monastery".
Since his youth Pavel Tretyakov was fond of music and theatre. Visiting St. Petersburg in 1852 on official business of his Trading House he sends home letters in which he enthusiastically writes about the railway, his high spirits and theater performances he'd recently seen.
At this time his fascination with the arts inspires him to start his collection. In a witty poem written by a friend of his there are the following lines:
He would cast away the shadows
At the market of the Sukharev Tower...
Actually, the first acquisitions of nameless (for offspring) artworks date from that time. In July of 1853, he acquired 11 paintings at the Sukharev market, where he usually bought books - that was how Pavel Tretyakov called the drawing lists. But in the following years he acquired real paintings made in oils. These were works by Old Dutch masters. Later Tretyakov would prefer canvases by Russian artists, and order to hang the Dutch paintings in the house in Ilyinsky Pereulok, where starting from 1865 his mother lived. However, these paintings would consequently return to Lavrushinsky Pereulok to decorate the study of Pavel Mikhailovich.
A book published back in 1853 was titled "The Description of the Picture Gallery of the Privy Councilor Fyodor Pryanishnikov". It was a personal survey of this collection in 1856 and a visit to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg that induced Pavel Tretyakov to start collecting. But, having no sufficient funds, he preferred to acquire paintings of not really famous contemporary artists. One of the first paintings acquired for the collection in 1856 was a canvas by V.G. Khudyakov "Skirmish with Finnish Smugglers" (1853). A bit later the young collector acquired the painting by N.G. Shilder "Temptation" (1850s). P.M. Tretyakov considered 1856 the official year of his collection launch.