Images above: Portrait of Alexei Savrasov by Vasily Perov, 1878: View of the Kremlin from Krimsky bridge in Inclement Weather. 1851. Oil on canvas. 67*90 cm Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow

Alexey Savrasov was the son of a Moscow merchant. In his early youth he displayed an un­common talent for painting. Despite the wishes of his father, who hoped to attract his son into the world of commerce, Savrasov entered the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture. That was in 1844, and four years later the report of the Council of the Moscow Art Society men­tioned his name as the best pupil in the perspective and landscape class taken by the artist K. I. Rabus. Continue to read....