The Russian School of Painting
and ends—bear the imprint of high craftsmanship, of classical simplicity, and of a great power of characterisation. Equally superb are his water-colours, which are free from the customary defects of his oil paintings. Moreover, even his canvases illustrating different episodes of the conquest of Caucasus are, in spite of all their technical defects, probably the best war paintings of the reign of Nicholas I. At any rate, they overflow with ardent nervosity and romantic boldness, and have the convincing power of an eye-witness's tale.—In the second part of his life this big artist became enamoured of Byzantinism and began to preach, by word and deed, this beautiful, but incontestably superannuated art. It was then that Gagarin turned into that dull icon-painter and insipid architect, who is sufficiently known by his buildings and projects, as well as by the drawings which found hospitality alongside his magnificent sketches in the room of the Museum of Alexander III, which is devoted to the œuvre of the master. It must not be forgotten, however, that this enthusiasm for Byzantinism was a logical deduction from the romantic cult of the Middle Ages. The feeble and unsuccessful attempts to revive the Byzantine and Russian styles are nothing but a local version of the "Gothic Propaganda" of the West.
Von-Moller (1812–1875) won fame by a painting
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