The Eighteenth Century
omkin (kept in the Hermitage, Tzarskoye Selo, and in Parlovsk) reveal a great, almost "English" knowledge of the intricate and troublesome water-colour technique. Besides, Ivanov drew figures very well, mastered perspective, and generally in contradistinction to the modest, home-bred Shchedrin, he came up to Western standards. His répertoire also was broader. He easily mastered complex scenes, even essayed military[1] compositions, and seems to have been a good cartoonist. Nevertheless, his works are less attractive than those of Shchedrin. There is too much skill and dexterity in them, and too little attention to nature. Ivanov, an artist of the manneristic type—in Paris he was a pupil of Leprince—had also all the equipment of a decorative artist, but works of this type have not come down to us.
Infinitely greater than Shchedrin and Ivanov in talent is Fyodor Alexyeyev (1753–1824), one of the best masters of the whole Russian school. Unfortunately, we are able to estimate the pictorial gift of this artist by no more than two or three productions—whereas the rest of his numerous paintings are routine and dull. Amongst Alexyeyev's masterpieces the foremost place
- ↑ The artist, who accompanied Potyomkin in his campaigns, painted, from nature, many episodes of the Turkish war, among others "The Storming of Ochakov." (Author's note.)
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