Embankment of Constantinople 

Alexey Bogolyubov made this oil on canvas painting, ‘Embankment of Constantinople,’ at some point during his career as a Russian landscape artist. In it, we see not just a place, but also the changing dynamics of 19th-century society. Bogolyubov trained at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, an institution designed to train artists in service of the Tsarist regime. Yet, his work, particularly scenes like this, broke from academic traditions. Here, he captures Constantinople, now Istanbul, a city of immense strategic and cultural importance, through a lens that balances the grandeur of its architecture with the everyday lives of its inhabitants. The painting reflects a broader 19th-century interest in depicting not just historical or mythological scenes, but contemporary life and places as they were experienced. As an art historian, I’d consider the rise of tourism and increased travel facilitated by steamships and railways when interpreting such a painting, as well as the growing presence of Russian imperial power in the Ottoman Empire.