How do places from artists’ paintings look now? (PICS+PHOTOS)

Mikhail Germashev, ‘Old Moscow. Arbat Street’

Germashev’s painting shows Arbat, one of the main streets of Moscow. In 1913, when the artist painted it, Arbat Street looked completely different to what it looks like now. Many buildings in the painting don’t exist anymore. For example, Prince Trubetskoy’s mansion (a six-column building on the right) was destroyed in 1941 by a high-explosive bomb. ‘Old Moscow’ also depicts the Church of St. Nicholas on Arbat, into which Pierre Bezukhov sneaked in Leo Tolstoy’s novel ‘War and Peace’. This church was torn down in 1931. Today, it’s a wide pedestrian street, with a lot of cafes, souvenir stores, as well as the main building of the Investigative Committee of Russia.

Fyodor Alekseyev, ‘A View of Resurrection Gate’

More than 200 years ago, the Neglinnaya River ran in front of the Moscow Kremlin, instead of Manezhnaya Square. In his painting, Alekseyev also depicted the first stone crossing in the capital – it was built in 1603 back under Boris Godunov. The Kremlin back then was regularly whitewashed; it was done right until the 1880s, after which they left the now familiar red brick.

Today, Manezhnaya Square stands in place of the river, while the river itself has been diverted through an underground pipe. However, they decided not to disassemble the bridge and simply covered it with earth. In the 1990s, archaeologists dug it up and, later, managed to open the underground Archaeology Museum, where, today, you can see that and other artifacts of the capital. The Resurrection Gate, depicted on the left in the painting, was torn down in 1931. Its renewed version was built only in 1995.

Gérard de la Barthe, ‘A View of Mokhovaya Street and of the House of G. Pashkov. 1799’

The French painter created this painting in 1795, during the rule of Empress Catherine the Great. The painting depicts one of the houses of Pashkov, the ‘first vodka king’. In 1812, this mansion was badly burned and had to be rebuilt. Amazingly, this building still stands in the very same place; it now houses the departments of the Russian State Library. However, the beautiful fence and landscape garden have disappeared – they had to be removed, due to widening of Mokhovaya Street.

Alexei Savrasov, ‘The Rooks Have Returned’

This painting, made in 1871, depicts the remote village of Molvitino, Kostroma Region. And, although the church in the background of the painting is not drawn from life, it has a real prototype in the form of the Church of the Resurrection, located in the same village.

Currently, this settlement still exists, although now it’s called Susanino.

Maksim Vorobyov, ‘Yelagin Island at Night’

Yelagin Island is the northernmost island of St. Petersburg. Before it was noticed and tidied up by the aristocracy of the 19th century, it had very unwelcoming swamps and impassable forests. Ober-Hofmeister Yelagin (in whose honor the island was named) owned this territory and, later, managed to turn it into a place for recreation, both for the imperial family and regular inhabitants of the northern capital. Today, it hosts the Central Park named after Kirov.

Currently its historic look has been preserved almost entirely, in many ways thanks to the memorials of architecture: estates, bridges and embankments. Also, the park has the only modern glass blowing works that operates on the basis of the museum.

Ivan Aivazovsky, ‘A View of Moscow from Sparrow Hills

Sparrow Hills (Vorobyovy Gory) is the highest point of the capital. From there, you can see almost the entire center of Moscow. However, it was not always so. In 1849, there was an open field instead of the lively metropolis and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was still under construction, which we can see in the painting by Aivazovsky.

Today, there’s a full-fledged observation deck in the place where the artist made his painting. From it, you get a panoramic view of dense urban development and one of the largest stadiums of Russia – Luzhniki.

Konstantin Korovin, ‘Moskvoretsky Bridge’

The walls of the Kremlin and Moskvoretsky Bridge are some of the most recognizable objects of the capital. In the painting by Korovin, you can see what this place looked like in 1914.

A lot has changed since: houses, built almost right under the Kremlin walls, were torn down in 1936. The Church of St. Nicholas, which was located in front of St. Basil’s Cathedral, is no more. Even Moskvoretsky Bridge was different – it was wooden. It was replaced with one made of stone only in 1938.

Ivan Aivazovsky, ‘Mountain Village Gunib in Dagestan. View from the eastern side’

The painter traveled to the Caucasus in the 19th century. There, he created a painting dedicated to the beauty of the Caucasian Mountains. Usually, Aivazovsky painted from memory at his workshop, but ‘Mountain Village Gunib’ was painted from life. It’s unsurprising that the painting depicted the landscape of the time very precisely. Moreover, the depicted mountain in the painting remains the same even now – the only change is that the mountain village situated on this mountain is now recognized as one of the best ski resorts in Dagestan. In the past, it was very hard to reach this place because of the absence of proper roads and elevation differences.

Alexander Benois, ‘The House of Anna Mons’

Benois made this painting in 1911; it depicts the manor of Anna Mons, one of the royal mistresses of Peter the Great. Legend has it that he gifted this manor to her when they opened up to everyone about their relationship. However, in the painting, the house and its surroundings look somewhat different from what they looked like in the 20th century – the painter used the description of the building from the archives as a basis to restore the look of these parts as they were in the 17th century. By the way, the manor remains the only remaining architectural monument of the German Quarter – a historical quarter of Moscow where mostly foreigners lived, who didn’t convert to Orthodox Christianity and/or who didn’t know the Russian language.

Today, the manor still stands at its original place. But, you won’t be able to get in, as it is closed for tourists. All you can do is to admire it from a distance.