The Mikhailovsky Palace

The Romantic perception of the world, which penetrated the art of the early nineteenth century, made an important contribution to Russian landscape painting and drawing. Previously unnoted corners of simple nature, unexpected angles and the everyday surroundings of famous monuments of art often became sources of inspiration for Russian artists.

Sylvester Schedrin (1791–1830) worked in Italy alongside the painters of the Pozilippo school, creating inspired and poetic views of Rome, Naples, Sorrento and other Italian towns. The representations of the outskirts of Rome painted by Mikhail Lebedev, filled with sunshine and air, are also tinted with moods of sorrow, joy and languor.