Alekseev Fedor Yakovlevich is a famous Russian landscape painter of the 18th century. He became one of the first masters of perspective painting and made a great contribution to the development of the landscape in Russian art.

Fedor Yakovlevich was born in 1753 into a poor watchman family. At the age of 11 he entered the Imperial Academy of Arts. He studied ornamental sculpture with Louis Rolland, still life with Heinrich Fonderminte, and landscape painting with Antonio Perezinotti. He graduated in 1773 with a 1st degree certificate and was awarded silver and gold medals.

After graduating from the Academy, Fedor Alekseev received the right to an internship abroad for his academic success. He went to Venice, where he studied the skill of a theater decorator. The Academy insisted on this, since there were no theater artists in Russia at that time. The young man's teachers were Gaspari and Moretti. However, Alekseev was not the most diligent student, he constantly received complaints from the Academy of Arts about frivolous behavior. However, the young man took up his mind in time, and he was not deprived of his pension, but even extended the trip for a year.

During the internship, Alekseev got acquainted with the vedu - a genre of painting that depicts the urban landscape in detail. Veduta was very popular in 18th century Venice. In Italy, the young artist studied creativity, A. Canale, D. Piranesi.

Returning to Alekseev, he entered the service in the workshop of the imperial theaters. However, this was not the main goal of the artist. He dreamed of painting landscapes, which he did in his spare time. Alekseev went to and copied the work of Vernet, Belotto. The copies were so good that Catherine II herself gave orders to the young artist. Fedor Yakovlevich was finally able to leave his job as a decorator and devote his time to painting.

He draws views of St. Petersburg - the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Palace Embankment. The city in the works of Alekseev appears photographically accurately painted, solemn and majestic. In 1794, the artist received the title of academician for these landscapes. In 1795 Alekseev, after the solemn journey of Catherine II to Tauris, received a business trip to the Crimea and Ukraine. He paints views of Kherson, Nikolaev, Bakhchisaray.

In 1800, on behalf of Paul I, Alekseev traveled to with two students. For a year and a half, he painted several paintings and many watercolors. The artist depicted the Moscow Kremlin, Red Square, city churches and streets with amazing authenticity. His "Moscow series" was such a success that Alekseev began to receive orders from the nobility and museums.

From 1803 Fedor Yakovlevich worked as a teacher of perspective painting at the Academy of Arts. The artist continues to paint views of St. Petersburg. Now he pays more attention to the urban life of the inhabitants, depicting people against the backdrop of the solemn classical buildings of the capital. The coloring of the works has become warmer, the graphics have gained "density", the forms have become more distinct. Alekseev depicted the views of the English Embankment, the Admiralty, the Kazan Cathedral, Vasilyevsky Island.

As an old man, the artist often fell ill and suffered from paralysis, but continued to paint. F.Ya. Alekseev died on November 11, 1824. His last work was supposedly a sketch of the flood in St. Petersburg. The Academy of Arts allocated funds for the funeral of the artist and an allowance for his large family.

Alekseev made a great contribution to the development of Russian landscape painting. The artist left us views of Moscow, St. Petersburg and other Russian cities, rendered with amazing accuracy and attention to detail. Looking at his paintings, it is interesting to compare how the cities looked then, and what is happening to them now. Alekseev's works are stored in

Introduction 3

1. Youth of the artist and education 4

2. Creativity of the painter 5
3. History of writing and analysis of the work 9
F.Ya.Alekseev. Red Square in Moscow.

Conclusion 12

References 13

Introduction

Trips of the best graduates of the Academy of Arts on internships to Italy and France to a large extent contributed to the formation of Russian painting as a secular art in the 18th century.

Fyodor Alekseev, sent to Venice to improve in the field of creating theatrical scenery, very soon shows his true destiny. His copies of the most famous Italian masters of the urban landscape (Bellotto, Guardi, Canaletto) brought him fame and, most importantly, financial independence, which allowed F. Alekseev to fully express himself in accordance with his calling - to impressively reproduce views of St. Petersburg, Moscow, and others in his paintings. Russian cities.

His works (View of the Palace Embankment from the Peter and Paul Fortress, 1794; View of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg; Cathedral Square in the Moscow Kremlin; View of the city of Nikolaev, 1799; View of the Stock Exchange and the Admiralty from the Peter and Paul Fortress, 1810; etc.) were brought by F.Ya. Alekseev recognition of his contemporaries as the leading painter of the urban landscape. The presented works allow us to appreciate the talent and vocation of the remarkable Russian artist.

Fedor Yakovlevich Alekseev - the first master of the urban landscape in Russian painting. The image of classical Petersburg is associated with the name of Fyodor Alekseev in Russian art. Thanks to this artist, the urban landscape was formed as an independent genre.

The purpose of this work is the creative life of F.Ya. Alekseev.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary to highlight a number of tasks:

1. Consider the artist's childhood and youth.
2. Describe the education of the painter.
3. Highlight the creative life of the master.

1. Youth of the artist and education

F.Ya. Alekseev was born in St. Petersburg in 1753 or 1754. There is little information about the life of the artist, the exact date of his birth has not yet been established. The father of the future landscape painter, Yakov Alekseevich, a retired soldier, served as a watchman at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Alekseev received his initial education as a soldier's son at a garrison school. At the beginning of 1767, at the request of his father, the boy was admitted to the Academy of Arts, a pupil of the third age. For some time, Alekseev studied painting “fruits and flowers” ​​(as the still life genre was called at the Academy). However, the teachers noticed the young man's penchant for depicting views and architectural motifs, and a year before graduation, he was transferred to the newly organized landscape painting class 1.

In 1773, Alekseev completed his studies at the Academy, having received a small gold medal for a picturesque landscape, the content of which, unfortunately, is not known. The gold medal gave the right to continue art education abroad, at the expense of the Academy. Since the easel landscape at that time had much in common with the art of theatrical scenery, Alekseev was sent to Venice to improve in the field of scenery painting. The young artist stayed in Venice for more than three years. Initially, he mastered the techniques of creating theatrical scenery, learning to "draw perspectives" in the workshops of the Venetian artists Giuseppe Moretti and Pietro Gaspari. These masters were representatives of the outgoing baroque style and created architectural compositions in which fantastic buildings from different eras coexisted. Alekseev, on the other hand, strove to engage in easel landscape painting, which reflected the features of a new style - classicism. Architectural and natural views, executed in this style, were distinguished by the reliability of the image and, at the same time, the well-thought-out organization of space, which gives the picture image a sublime, generalized character. Alekseev arbitrarily left his Venetian teachers and, without waiting for the permission of the Academy, went to Rome, where he hoped to master a new landscape direction.

2. Creativity of the painter

The artist's desire for personal and creative independence was opposed by the resident of the Academy in Venice, Marquis Maruzzi, who took care of Russian pensioners. Maruzzi forced Alekseev to return to Venice, but the obstinate student preferred to work with Moretti and Gaspari on his own from life. In Venice, Alekseev for the first time showed a gravitation towards the image of the city "lead". His mentors in this were the works of the famous Venetian painters Antonio Canaletto and Bernardo Bellotto. Copying their paintings, Alekseev mastered the compositional techniques of constructing the space of the urban landscape. The artist perfectly mastered the classical technique of painting with glazing, which made it possible to give the color solution a special transparency and depth. Alekseev managed to show his gift as a painter in a copy executed in 1776 from Canaletto's work "Architectural Fantasy". The painting, called “Interior view of the courtyard with a garden. Loggia in Venice" (State Russian Museum), was intended for the Academy of Arts and demonstrated the successes achieved by the artist in painting architectural "avenues". Due to the intrigues of Maruzzi, the painting arrived in St. Petersburg very late, which greatly damaged the further career of the artist. Despite the obvious pictorial merits of the work, Alekseev was not awarded the title of “appointed” to the academician for her. The original decision of the Academy to extend the retirement period for his pet was also canceled, and Alekseev was forced to return to St. Petersburg in the summer of 1777 2 .

At the beginning of 1779, Alekseev was appointed to the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters as a "painter at the theater school." The official list, compiled by the artist at the end of his life, indicates that he was in the service of the Directorate for almost seven years and "succeeded", educating one of the first students, the landscape painter V.P. Petrov. Unfortunately, the original works performed by Alekseev for the theater have not been preserved.

Another important area of ​​the artist's activity in the 1780s was copying the works of Western European landscape painters, including Canaletto and Belloto, who were already well known to him. The works of these artists were in the collection of the Imperial Hermitage. Empress Catherine II ordered copies. The artist proudly noted that the empress "... found great pleasure in looking at my works and was always rewarded." Alekseev's copies of Canaletto's views of Venice and Bellotto's views of the Zwinger entertainment complex in Dresden can be called creative interpretations of the originals. Significantly reducing the size and scale of repetitions, Alekseev created works that were chamber in nature, distinguished by their independent color scheme. The copies painted by the artist from the works of the German landscape painter Ya.F. Hackert - "View of Catania and Etna" and "View of Lipari and Stromboli". The originals depicting a bay at the foot of Mount Etna in Sicily and islands in the Mediterranean Sea were purchased from the author by Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich. They were vivid examples of the modern trend in landscape painting, in which Alekseev himself aspired to work.

Having gone through a long school of copying, Alekseev managed to develop his own pictorial style. Not surprisingly, the artist's first known original landscapes immediately acquired the status of masterpieces. In 1793, Alekseev painted “View of the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Palace Embankment” (State Museum-Estate “Arkhangelskoye”), and a year later he performed a pair to it “View of the Palace Embankment from the Peter and Paul Fortress” (State Tretyakov Gallery). Views of St. Petersburg were the frontier in the work of the landscape painter. In the summer of 1794, Alekseev received the title of "appointed" to the academician for a copy written in Venice from a painting by Canaletto, and a few months later, he was awarded the title of academician of perspective painting for "View of the city of St. Petersburg along the Neva River."

Views of the northern capital of the early 1790s add up to a single panorama of the Palace Embankment from the Summer Garden to the old building of the Admiralty. In them, Alekseev appeared as an established master of the urban landscape, creating an amazing image of a harmonious dream city. The silhouette of the embankment is integral with the space of the landscape. The iridescence of the bluish-gray range of tones creates the effect of transparency and depth of the air and water elements, in which the buildings seem to be immersed. It is noteworthy that the sophistication of color in Alekseev was not always the result of the use of multilayer glazing. In the landscape of 1794, the artist conveyed all the richness of color in almost a single layer of color, thanks to his unique pictorial talent.

In 1795, on the instructions of the Academy, Alekseev went on a trip to Little Russia and the Crimea, "to take pictures" of the cities, which Empress Catherine II had visited shortly before. The artist visited Nikolaev, Kherson, visited ancient Bakhchisarai. Based on natural impressions, in the late 1790s, Alekseev painted a series of picturesque panels with views of these cities. (Now they are kept in the Kherson Museum of Local Lore, the State Russian Museum, the State Tretyakov Gallery) The large size of the panels indicates that they were intended for palace interiors. Fulfilling the order, Alekseev applied the skills of a decorator acquired in Venice. The generalization of the manner of writing, the flatness of the depicted space, the rich color gamut of the works demonstrate a different facet of the master's talent, whose artistic style changed depending on the creative task assigned to him.

In 1800, at the behest of Emperor Paul I, Alekseev arrived in Moscow "to take pictures of various types." Together with assistants from among academic students, A. Kunavin and I. Moshkov, the artist spent more than a year in the capital. Moscow attracted the landscape painter with medieval buildings, unusual for a resident of St. Petersburg. In a letter to the President of the Academy of Arts A.S. Alekseev reported to Stroganov: “At the discretion of Moscow, I found so many beautiful objects for paintings that I am at a loss with which kind to start: I had to decide, and I have already begun the first sketch of the square with St. Basil’s Church and I will use the winter to paint a picture.” The painting "Red Square in Moscow" (1801, State Tretyakov Gallery) became the master's most famous canvas. On it, the artist presented ancient architectural monuments - the Kremlin wall with the Spasskaya Tower, the Cathedral of the Intercession, which is on the Moat, called St. Basil's Cathedral, the Execution Ground. The space of the square has turned into a kind of theatrical stage, on which the daily life of Muscovites unfolds. In the painting, Alekseev created not only an expressive architectural image of the city, but also showed the diversity and diversity of Moscow life 3 .

Under the guidance of Alekseev, his students created many watercolor drawings that captured the appearance of "pre-fire" Moscow. Most of the structures depicted on them - temples and monasteries, royal towers and triumphal gates - perished during the Patriotic War of 1812, others were destroyed later. The drawings were included in the so-called "portfolio" of Moscow views, which became the basis for the creation of paintings. Alekseev’s paintings “Cathedral Square in the Moscow Kremlin”, “View of the Resurrection and Nikolsky Gates and the Neglinny Bridge from Tverskaya Street in Moscow” (State Tretyakov Gallery), and others, painted by Alekseev in the 1800s - 1810s, and others, already for Alekseev’s contemporaries acquired nature of historical documents. One of the most striking artistic images of Moscow created by Alekseev was “View of the Moscow Kremlin and the Stone Bridge” (State Historical Museum). It was engraved by S.F. Galaktionov, decorated many illustrated editions and even porcelain items of that time.

In the 1800s, Alekseev again turned to the image of his native city, St. Petersburg. In the paintings “View of the Stock Exchange and the Admiralty from the Peter and Paul Fortress” (1810, State Tretyakov Gallery), “View of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg”, “View of the Admiralty and the Palace Embankment from the First Cadet Corps” (1810s, State Russian Museum) the heroes were the new architectural structures of the capital, erected at the beginning of the 19th century. The complexity and dynamism of the construction distinguishes the view of the Exchange, crowning the spit of Vasilevsky Island. The artist chose the point of view, which contemporaries called "happy". It made it possible to capture in a single space the magnificent buildings that personified the power and prosperity of the young city. The architectural "avenue" has turned into an image of an urban environment full of noise and movement. Scenes from the life of city dwellers play an important role in the Petersburg views of the early 19th century, filling the images with charm and human warmth.

Alekseev made a huge contribution to the development of the landscape genre as a teacher. In 1802, the landscape painter was awarded the title of professor and promoted to the Councilors of the Academy of Arts. From 1803 until his death, he headed the class of perspective painting. Some of Alekseev's pupils worked in his workshop, helping him to fulfill numerous orders for Moscow and St. Petersburg views, especially in recent years, when the master himself was seriously ill. One of the best students of Alekseev was M.N. Vorobyov, who headed the national landscape school after the death of a teacher. F.Ya. died. Alekseev 11 (November 23 - new style) 1824 in St. Petersburg.

3. History of writing and analysis of the work of F. Ya. Alekseev. Red Square in Moscow.

On July 25, 1800, the Council of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts, in accordance with the command of Paul I, sent the academician of painting F.Ya. Alekseev "to remove different types" to Moscow. Here he worked until 1802. For a year and a half, the artist painted a number of landscapes that allow us to imagine what the capital of Russia looked like at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. In a letter to the President of the Academy of Arts A.S. Alekseev wrote to Stroganov: “After inspecting Moscow, I found so many beautiful objects for paintings that I am at a loss as to which view to start with; I had to decide, and I have already begun the first sketch from the square with St. Basil's Church and I will use the winter to paint a picture.

In his picture F.Ya. Alekseev not only lists the numerous and varied buildings of the ancient capital, but, as was typical of his understanding of the landscape picture, he tries to create a holistic, unified image of the city. In the center of Red Square is the Pokrovsky Cathedral (St. Basil's Cathedral). In front of him is the Execution Ground, from which royal decrees and other important messages were announced in ancient Rus'. The right part of the picture is closed by the Kremlin wall and the Spasskaya tower. To the right of the tower, behind the wall, rise the domes of the Ascension Monastery, to the left you can see the tent of the Tsar's Tower. Majestic monuments of medieval Moscow architecture are the main "heroes" of the landscape. They make up a balanced, harmonious composition, likening the space of the picture to a grandiose theater stage. Sunlight pouring from the left colors the entire landscape in warm, golden hues.

An artist who made a name for himself with a new genre in Russian art - the genre of urban landscape. The amazing talent and general style of his paintings is one of the best in the world of painting. The name of the amazing artist is Alekseev Fedor Yakovlevich.

Biography

Alekseev Fedor Yakovlevich was born in 1754 (the exact date of birth is not available in historical sources) in a poor family. In 1766, his father petitioned to enroll his son in the Academy of Arts, and his request was granted. Fyodor Alekseev begins his studies in the class of painting flowers and fruits, after which he is transferred to the landscape class, and in 1773 he successfully graduates from the Academy. For the best writing of the software landscape, he is awarded a gold medal. To continue his education, a talented young man is sent to Venice to specialize in decorative painting. This is a special type of writing scenery for the theater. During his studies, Fedor Alekseev, in addition to his main occupation, was enthusiastically studying Venetian artists depicting the landscape, such as Canale, Guardi, engravings by Piranesi, who at that time lived in Rome. But with his craving for new knowledge, the artist causes dissatisfaction with the academic authorities.

Road to art

After completing his specialization in Venice, the artist Fedor Alekseev returns to St. Petersburg and gets a job as a painter at the theater school. The approximate dates of this period of his life are 1779-1786. Due to his passion for landscapes, in addition to theatrical scenery, Fyodor Alekseev was met rather coolly in his homeland and was denied further education to receive the title of academician. But the artist sets himself the goal of showing the Academy what he is capable of, and along with this work, the artist combines the copying of landscapes by Canaletto, Bellotto, Robert and Berne in the newly opened Hermitage.

Thanks to his successful work in the Hermitage, he leaves the service at the school. His creative reproduction of the originals repeated their pictorial system so beautifully that the work was a great success. Successful activity brought Fyodor Alekseev fame, the nickname "Russian Canaletto", for which the Academy gives the artist the opportunity to write his own paintings. Of course, they were landscapes.

The originality of the works of the artist Fedor Alekseev

Having proved his ability to paint on his own, the artist paints a number of well-known paintings with views of St. Petersburg. Some of the most significant: "View of the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Palace Embankment" (1793) and "View of the Palace Embankment from the Peter and Paul Fortress" (1794).

Using the knowledge he acquired in Venice, Fyodor Alekseev creates his own image of a solemn and at the same time a living city. At the same time, in his paintings, he retains the laws of classicism that were important in the 18th century and combines the ideal and the real. For his work in 1794, the artist Fyodor Alekseev was given the title of academician of perspective painting.

creative path

After receiving the honorary title, Fyodor Alekseev is given the task of painting the places where Empress Catherine II was in 1787. The artist recreates on his canvases the beauty of such southern cities as Nikolaev, Kherson, Bakhchisaray.

And in 1800, Emperor Paul I himself instructed Fyodor Alekseev to paint Moscow. During the time that the artist spent in this city (a little over a year), he brought several paintings and a large number of watercolors, which depict views of Moscow streets, monasteries, and suburbs. But the most important thing is the unique images of the Kremlin. Among them, the most popular "Red Square in Moscow" and "Boyarskaya Square, or the Bed Porch and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior behind a golden lattice in the Moscow Kremlin."

Moscow works are so distinguished by their accuracy and documentary quality that they attract new buyers of paintings to the artist. Among them are famous people and members of the imperial family.

The fame of the artist as a landscape painter

Since the 1800s Fedor Yakovlevich becomes the head of the perspective painting class at the Academy of Arts and again paints on his favorite topic - St. Petersburg. At the same time, the artist travels a lot around Russia and captures views of provincial towns.

More life appears in his paintings, it seems that now the images will come to life. They become like historical documentaries. More and more the artist depicts people. They come to the fore of canvases with palaces, embankments and streets. People with their daily activities, wagons, workers. The details are painted even more clearly, more heavily, the colors look warmer, and the painting takes on a special saturation. The works of that time include "View of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg", "View of the English Embankment from the side of Vasilyevsky Island" and others. In warm colors, with fine drawing of the smallest details.

Fyodor Alekseev's paintings are distinguished by a special "warm" light and movement. The sky takes on a delicate azure hue, and the clouds - the pinkness of the setting sun.

The last years of the artist's life

Nobody is eternal, and over time, the fame of Alekseev Fedor Yakovlevich begins to fade, and the public forgets him. The famous landscape painter dies in 1824 in great poverty. After him, his wife and children remain, and the Academy of Arts provides material assistance for organizing the funeral and for the continued existence of the family.

Despite the sad end of his life, the artist Fedor Yakovlevich Alekseev is one of the most famous creators of the urban landscape genre. Queues line up for his paintings at the Tretyakov Gallery, the State Hermitage, and the Russian Museum. His works are studied in educational institutions. He is remembered, and in the world of painting his name is highly valued, and the biography of Fyodor Alekseev is an example of what you need to follow your calling, no matter what.

Biography of Fedor Yakovlevich Alekseev

Fedor Yakovlevich Alekseev is the first master of the urban landscape in the history of Russian painting.

His father served as a watchman at the Academy of Sciences, which was a leading art center in the mid-18th century. The boy's father, Yakov Alekseev, sends his son to the Academy of Arts.

In the period from 1766 to 1773 Alekseev studied at the Academy of Arts.

In 1767 he was among the students of the class of ornamental sculpture, led by Louis Rolland, then in the "painting class" of G. Fandermint and A. Perezinotti.

In 1773 the artist received a small gold medal with a sword for a programmatic landscape. In honor of this event, he was sent to Venice to paint theatrical scenery.

In Italy, the artist studied with such masters as D. Moretti and P. Gaspari. But he soon abandoned all the teachers and independently turned to the urban landscape common in Venice.

He studies the famous landscape painters A. Canale, F. Guardi, is fond of landscape and fantastic engravings by D. B. Piranesi. Upon returning to his homeland, he was not offered any program for obtaining an academic title. He was sent to work as a decorator at the theater school, where he worked from 1779 to 1786.

While working at the school, he copied landscapes by A. Canale, B. Bellotto, G. Robert and J. Bernet from the Hermitage collection. Thanks to this, he quits a hated job. The copies were very successful and brought great success to the artist. They brought the artist the glory of the "Russian Canaletto" and the long-awaited opportunity to move on to painting original landscapes.

Among his works of the 1790s. especially known are "View of the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Palace Embankment" and "View of the Palace Embankment from the Peter and Paul Fortress". Alekseev created a lofty image of a majestic, beautiful city. The main attention in the paintings is given to the image of the water surface of the Neva, boats gliding along it and the high summer sky with floating clouds.

For the painting “View of the Palace Embankment from the Summer Garden to the Marble Palace” in 1794, the Academy of Arts awarded Alekseev the title of academician and he was sent to the south of Russia “to take pictures of the localities” visited by Catherine II in 1787.

The journey lasted 2 years, and the artist created many watercolors, on which he painted oil paintings already in St. Petersburg: “View of the city of Nikolaev”, “View of the city of Bakhchisarai” and others. The best was "View of the city of Bakhchisaray". This is how the landscapes of the southern cities appear - Nikolaev, Kherson, Bakhchisaray.

In the paintings of the southern cycle there are certain common features that allow us to judge the artist's movement from perspective to the classic organization of the canvas. The composition is organized clearly and logically clear.

And another characteristic feature of southern paintings is the appearance of staffing. All the details are depicted very vividly, forming entertaining genre scenes. They perform the functions of a kind of scale units that allow you to imagine the size of buildings, areas, and the height of trees.

Starting from these works, staffing has become an obligatory detail of all the artist's works. It seems to “populate” the city with people and buildings. These are not just mirages, these are solid structures made of stone, inhabited by many people.

In 1800, at the request of Emperor Paul I, Alekseev painted views of Moscow. Alekseev painted his paintings on the basis of detailed watercolor sketches from nature. The artist enthusiastically studies ancient Russian architecture.

He has been living in Moscow for more than a year. Here he created a number of paintings and many watercolors with views of Moscow streets, monasteries, suburbs, but mainly - various images of the Kremlin.

The image of a fabulous, holy Russian city struck people. Moscow work attracted a huge number of customers to Alekseev, among whom were the noblest nobles and members of the imperial family.

In 1802 Alekseev became the head of the class of perspective painting at the Academy of Arts. Among his students were Sylvester F. Shchedrin and M. N. Vorobyov.

He again returns to his favorite theme of St. Petersburg. Now his predilection for the harmony of the integral space of paintings in the artist has been replaced by a great interest in people, their lives against the backdrop of the luxurious palaces of the Neva. People with their daily activities now occupy the entire foreground of the paintings. These are “View of the English Embankment from Vasilevsky Island”, “View of the Admiralty and Palace Embankment from the First Cadet Corps”, “View of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg”, “View of the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island from the Peter and Paul Fortress”.

Gradually, the public begins to forget the aging artist. He was a magnificent artist, who through hard work proved his right to be a landscape painter, in great poverty, leaving a large family.

He died in poverty, in St. Petersburg, on November 11, 1824, leaving a large family without funds. The Academy gave money for his funeral and allowance for the widow and small children.

Alekseev is the first master of the urban landscape in Russian painting. In lyrical paintings executed with great subtlety, he captured the austere appearance of St. Petersburg, the picturesque beauty of Moscow, and the poetry of everyday city life.

He was attracted by the landscape, in which architecture played a huge role. He traveled a lot and already at the beginning of the 19th century painted views of the provincial cities of Russia and Moscow.

The most famous works of the master: “Cathedral Square in the Moscow Kremlin” (1780s), “View of the Palace Embankment from the Peter and Paul Fortress” (1794), “View of the Resurrection and Nikolsky Gates from Tverskaya Street in Moscow” (1811).

Alekseev Fedor Yakovlevich Fedor Yakovlevich Alekseev is a wonderful painter, the founder of Russian landscape painting, in particular, the urban landscape.

The artist was born in 1753 (the exact date of his birth is not known) and was the son of a guard at the Academy of Sciences. From 1766 to 1973 he studied at the Academy of Arts in a class called "painting flowers and fruits", and then moved to the landscape department. In 1773, having received a gold medal for program work, he was sent to Venice, where he spent three years painting for theatrical decorations, although he did not like them.

Alekseev's passion for Piranesi's fantastic engravings was not approved by the authorities of the Art Academy, therefore, upon returning home, a dry, restrained reception awaited him. He was not offered any programs for an academic title. On the contrary, he was simply forced to accept the position of a theater decorator, in which he worked from 1779 to 1786. Alekseev managed to leave his unloved work thanks to the excellent copying of landscapes by J. Bernet, G. Robert and B. Belotto from the Hermitage collection. His copies, skillfully reproducing the picturesque atmosphere of the originals, received incredible success. Thanks to these works, the artist Alekseev Fedor Yakovlevich gained the opportunity to paint original landscapes.

View of the Moscow Kremlin from the Kamenny Bridge

In his landscapes, the artist creates a perfect, sublime and at the same time very lively image of a majestic, large and incomparable city in its sophistication. Ideality in his works is closely intertwined with reality and is in perfect harmony with it.

Cathedral Square of the Moscow Kremlin

In 1794, the paintings of Alekseev Fedor Yakovlevich brought their creator the title of academician of painting.



A year later, the artist was sent to the Crimea and New Russia in order to capture the places visited by Empress Catherine II in 1787.



The artist creates wonderful landscapes of Bakhchisaray, Kherson, Nikolaev.



In 1800, on the instructions of Emperor Paul I, Alekseev created a number of Moscow landscapes.



The artist was deeply carried away by ancient Russian architecture and brought from Moscow, having stayed there for more than a year, not only a series of paintings, but also many watercolors with views of Moscow suburbs, monasteries, streets, and mainly various views of the Kremlin.



These works made a great impression on a number of influential persons and representatives of the imperial house, who became Alekseev's customers.

"Boyarskaya platform or bed porch and the Church of the Savior behind the Golden Lattice in the Moscow Kremlin"

A little later, the artist returns in his work to his beloved theme of St. Petersburg.



But the theme of his works has now changed - the artist has become more interested in ordinary people: their world and life against the backdrop of the luxury of palaces and the majestic Neva.



The main characters occupying the foreground of the paintings are the townspeople with their daily concerns.



More volume and clarity appeared in the paintings, their coloring became much warmer.



These works include "View of the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island from the Peter and Paul Fortress", "View of the Admiralty and Palace Embankment from the First Cadet Corps" and other works.