Carlo Bossoli

Carlo Bossoli’s youth in Odessa had instilled in him a longstanding interest in the landscape and buildings of the Russian Empire, which he drew on his extensive travels around Russia, the Crimean peninsula and the Black Sea region. Such works were popular with travellers, diplomats and aristocrats throughout Europe, and helped to shape the public view of Imperial Russia on the rest of the continent. Nighttime subjects such as this lyrical moonlit view of the capital of the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire are, however, relatively rare in Bossoli’s oeuvre. 

In remarkable condition, this refined gouache – aptly described by Ada Peyrot, the author of the Bossoli catalogue raisonné, as ‘enchanting’ – is one of a handful of drawings and sketches of St. Petersburg made during Bossoli’s visit to the Imperial capital city in 1857. The artist here displays his skill in capturing the atmosphere of this nocturnal landscape, suffused with a silvery glow, with the moon partially veiled by clouds and subtly reflected in the water of the river. The evocative composition is dominated by the dramatic motif of the gilded onion domes of the Russian Orthodox cathedral, silhouetted against the night sky. The Smolny Convent of the Resurrection, a large architectural complex on the left bank of the River Neva, consists of a five-domed cathedral surrounded by a large square courtyard originally intended to contain two stories of monastic cells. One of the most beautiful churches in St. Petersburg, the Smolny cathedral and convent was commissioned by Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great and Empress of Russia. Designed by the Italian architect Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli, the cathedral was largely built between 1748 and 1764. The interior remained unfinished, however, and by the beginning of the 19th century the building had fallen into disrepair. Work was eventually completed in 1835, when the cathedral was finally consecrated.

Bossoli’s account books record a large painting of the Smolny monastery that was sold on the art market in London in the late 1850, as well as a panoramic view of St. Petersburg acquired for 820 Swiss francs by the Marchese Alfieri in Turin in 1858.

The verso of the present sheet is inscribed and dated ‘London 1857’ and depicts a small pencil sketch of boats on the Thames.