The Russian School of Painting
Galaktionov (1779–1854) was S. Shchedrin's pupil, yet his works remind one of F. Alexyeyev, rather than of his teacher. This is probably because about the time Galaktionov reached the stage of independent development, "park painting," the typical phenomenon of the eighteenth century, had ceased to be. Alexander I took more interest in cities, camps and campaigns than in epicurean life in the lap of an artistically trimmed nature. Galaktionov evinces the urban, slightly official, slightly bureaucratic spirit of the time. In his drawings and lithographs—almost none of his pictures have come down to us—which are mostly views of Petrograd, we find none of the intimacy, silence, and cosiness of Alexyeyev's pictures. Galaktionov delights in painstakingly tracing the coping-stones of streets, he depicts deserted squares and renders the cold, barrack-like spirit of the Petrograd of Alexander's times. But just because of this is he precious, and even, to some extent, poetical. The typical traits of the epoch found their expression in his productions, and these views, drawn intelligently, if, pedantically, are an image, melancholy in its accuracy, of days bygone. Great charm is added to Galaktionov's paintings as well as to those of Alexyeyev by excellent, well grasped figures.
Martynov (1768–1826), who travelled far and
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