Background
Fyodor Alekseyev was born in 1753 in Saint Petersburg. He was the son of the caretaker.
Фёдор Алексеев
Fyodor Alekseyev was born in 1753 in Saint Petersburg. He was the son of the caretaker.
Alekseyev received his early training at the Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, and after 1773, went to Venice to study landscape style. He was able to learn from several French and Italian masters during his tenure in Venice.
Upon returning from studying in Venice, Alekseyev was faced with several years of drudgery working as a decorator and set painter for a theater school, and also painting knock-offs of the works of other great artists. He did what he needed to do to earn income while he honed his personal style and strived to make his own mark. Even so, his work copying the art of others helped get him noticed and known, and Alekseyev was able to gain traction for his own work and career. By 1793, works such as "View of the Palace Sea-front From the Castle of St. Peter and Paul" helped solidify his reputation as an original artist of formidable talent.
He spent some time between 1793 and 1800 in southern Russia painting the city and small-town scenes of that region. In 1800, the Russian Emperor Paul I commissioned a number of paintings featuring the cityscape of Moscow. A year in Moscow enabled him to complete several dozen works. Along with his pupils, 58 paintings of the ancient Russian capital were produced. His works effectively captured the grandeur of Russian architecture, often making cold and dreary Moscow seem a bit more like warm, sunny Venice.
After completing his commissions from the Emperor, Alekseyev returned to Saint Petersburg where he continued to produce a large volume of superior quality work. As a result, he enjoyed steady business in sales of his paintings, affording him a comfortable living. From 1803, he taught at the Academy, but also traveled extensively, visiting Kherson, Mykolaiv, Bakhchysarai, Oryol and other locations in the south which had been visited by Catherine the Great, where he produced plein air sketches and watercolors of the surrounding areas. In 1810, he produced a series of works depicting Saint Petersburg. The artist died in 1824.
View of Saint Michael's Castle
View of Nikolskaya tower and gates of Moscow Kremlin and the moat in place of present day graveyard near Kremlin Wall and part of Red Square
Terem and Church of Our Savior in a pine forest in the Kremlin
The Monastery of Trinity and St. Sergius
View of Voskresenskiye (Resurrection) and Nikolskiye Gates
The Annunciation Cathedral and Faceted palace
View of Moskvoretskaya Street, Zaryadye, Moscow
The Boyar's Ground in the Moscow Kremlin
Tverskaya Street and Triumphal Arch in the Strastnaya Square
View of Voskresenskiye (Resurrection) and Nikolskiye Gates
View of the town Mykolaiv
Town Square in Kherson
Military Hospital at Lefortovo
Palace in Tsaritsyno in the Vicinity of Moscow
Church of St. John the Baptist, Borovitskaya tower and Stablings prikaz (department) in the Kremlin
View of Saint Michael's Castle
New Jerusalem Monastery
Novaya square
View of the Sovereign's Palace and the Church of the Annunciation in the Rye yard
November 7, 1824 in the square in front of the Bolshoi Theatre
Holy Resurrection Cathedral of New Jerusalem Monastery. Internal view.
Potemkin street
Moskvoretskaya Street
View of Voskresenskiye (Resurrection) Gates of Kitay gorod, Nikolskye Gate of Kremlin and Neglinny bridge.
The Cathedral Square in the Moscow Kremlin
North side of Red Square
View of the Kremlin from the Troitsky Gate
View of the Palace Embankment from St. Peter's and St. Paul's Fortress
View of the Stock Exchange and the Admiralty from the Fortress of St. Peter and Paul
View of Vladimirskiye (Nikolskiye) Gate of Kitai gorod
The Foundling Hospital in Moscow
View of the Kremlin and the Kamenny Bridge in Moscow
Ivan the Great Bell Tower and Chudov Monastery in the Kremlin
View of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg
View of the Voskresensky and Nikolsky Gates and the Neglinny Bridge from Tverskay Street in Moscow
View of Moscow Near the Iversky Gate of the Kremlin
Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius
View onto St. Michael's Castle in St. Petersburg from the Fontanka Side
Boyars's platform
The Admiralty and the Winter Palace viewed from the Military College
View of the English Embankmant from Visilievsky Island in St. Petersburg
Church of Nikola the Big Cross on Ilyinka
Red Square, Moscow
View of Lubyanka
View from the Lubyanka square to Vladimirskiye gate
View of the Fortress of St. Peter and Paul and the Palace Embankmant
Illumination at Soboronaya Square on the occasion of the coronation of Alexander I
The Senate, Arsenal and Nikolskiye Gates in the Moscow Kremlin
Kolomenskoe village
View from the Kremlin's Spassky Gate
Fyodor Alekseyev adhered to the artistic traditions of Neoclassicism.