Boyars's platform 1815

Fyodor Alekseyev made this watercolor painting, 'Boyars's platform', with brushwork of exquisite control. Alekseyev was a master of perspective, and his architectural paintings are all about detail. The use of watercolor, rather than oil paint, is crucial to the effect. It meant that he could achieve a precision that might have seemed almost photographic at the time, though his goal was not exactly realism. The paint has a capacity to describe the texture of stonework, as the surfaces soak up and reflect the light, and so giving a true sense of the place. But it is Alekseyev's hand, eye, and artistry that bring this scene to life. He may have wanted us to imagine that we are standing in this historic space. It is in this engagement with the architecture, and also with the artistic traditions that give it form, that the painting gains its value.