Vasily Sadovnikov. A Watercolorist of the Pushkin Era

On 16 December (Old Style) 2025, we commemorate the 225th anniversary of the birth of Vasily Sadovnikov (1800–1879), one of Russia’s most renowned 19th-century watercolourists. His substantial artistic legacy is held in numerous museums across Russia and abroad. The State Russian Museum possesses the most extensive collection of the master’s works, including his easel watercolours, numerous sketches and studies in watercolour and graphite pencil, as well as an oil painting and a lithograph. The museum also houses a number of engravings based on Sadovnikov’s drawings.

Vasily Sadovnikov was born into a family of serfs owned by Princess Natalya Golitsyna, who served as the prototype for the Old Countess in Alexander Pushkin’s novella The Queen of Spades. The exact place of the artist’s birth remains unknown, though, according to census records, his father’s family was registered in the village of Mestnichi in Meshchovsky District, Kaluga Province, where the princess’ estate, Gorodnya, was located. Vasily Sadovnikov received no formal artistic education, and was, in his own words, entirely “self-taught”.

The earliest watercolours by Sadovnikov date back to the 1820s and were created at the Stroganovs’ country residence on the Chyornaya Rechka and at their Maryino estate near Tosno. During this period, the young artist produced landscape drawings for the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts and experimented with lithography.

A pivotal moment in Vasily Sadovnikov’s career came with his creation of a panorama of Nevsky Prospect, commissioned by Andrei Prévost, an agent of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts and a publisher. The image of the northern side of the Nevsky Prospect was published in 1830, followed by the southern side in 1835. The completed panorama stretched nearly 16 metres in length. The lithographs were executed by Ilya and Pyotr Ivanov. This celebrated documentary and artistic masterpiece perfectly captures the spirit of Pushkin’s era.

In January 1838, following the death of Princess Natalya Golitsyna, Vasily Sadovnikov and his family were granted their freedom. The same year, the Council of the Academy of Arts awarded him the title of Free Unclassed Artist for his watercolour perspective study of the ceremonial staircase of the Academy of Arts, painted from life (now held in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts). The work was exhibited at the Academy of Arts and drew the attention of Emperor Nicholas I, who “praised it highly” and granted the artist an audience at the Anichkov Palace.

It was likely during this period that Vasily Sadovnikov created his watercolour The Mikhailovsky Palace in St Petersburg. The White Hall (now held in the Shchusev Museum of Architecture). This work represents the first known depiction of the White Hall of the palace, an interior that captivated contemporaries with its splendour.

From that time, the artist received numerous imperial commissions: he painted views of St Petersburg documenting its evolving architectural landscape, including new civic and ecclesiastical buildings, while also capturing significant events in the life of the city. In 1847, he produced several watercolour views of St Petersburg and its surroundings for an imperial gift to the English queen, three of which are featured in the current exhibition (from the State Hermitage Museum).

Vasily Sadovnikov had numerous private commissions throughout his career. He contributed to the creation of watercolours for the lithographed album Album de Wilna, published by Jan Wilczyński. Between 1846 and 1848, the artist travelled to the cities of Vilnius, Tallinn, and Kaunas, along with their suburbs, producing numerous studies from life and easel watercolours that were later published by Jan Wilczyński.

During the 1850s–1860s, the artist made regular visits to imperial country estates. The collection of the Russian Museum holds his watercolour landscapes depicting Yelagin Island, Pavlovsk, Tsarskoye Selo, Peterhof, Gatchina, the Gostilitsy estate, and Princess Zinaida Yusupova’s country residence in Helsingfors.

From the 1850s onward, Vasily Sadovnikov increasingly turned to the genre of interior painting. Between 1852 and 1854, he produced a watercolour series depicting the interiors of the Yusupov Palace on the Moika River, followed in the 1860s by a series of views of Princess Zinaida Yusupova’s mansion on Liteiny Prospect.

The artist continued working well into his later years. His brother Pyotr Sadovnikov told that “Vasily never went anywhere without pencil and paper – be it quarter-sheets or even “eighth-sheets” (one-eighth of a full page) which filled his pockets – drawing constantly and everywhere.”

Vasily Sadovnikov had a long and challenging artistic journey, with St Petersburg emerging as the central theme of his work – a city with which he developed a deep connection and which he celebrated in hundreds of his watercolours.

The State Russian Museum expresses its gratitude to the State Hermitage Museum, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the Shchusev State Museum of Architecture, the Peterhof State Museum and Reserve, and the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum and Reserve for their participation in the exhibition, as well as Alexei Egorov for providing a work from his private collection.

The show is organized with support from Severstal, KindnessoftheNorthFoundation, Power Machines, Lenta, Nordgold, SVEZA, FUN&SUN Travel Agency, Scandinavia and Scandinavia AVA-Peter clinic group.