19th century
Red Square with St. Basil's Cathedral
Watercolor on paper, cm 30.5X47.3
This artifact, made with watercolor on paper, shows a view of the city of Moscow, particularly Red Square, the main square of the Russian capital and one of the largest squares in the world. The square is depicted with its back to the History Museum, thus capturing St. Basil's Cathedral. The large square is teeming with people and carts and bounded on the sides by the imposing buildings of the Kremlin and GUM. A multitude of spiers and domes fade into the background, vanishing into the clouds in the sky. The work, made in watercolor, is dominated by the presence of light colors that lighten the monumentality of the buildings surrounding the square.