One of the significant events in the life of Alexander Pushkin was his trip to the Caucasus in 1829. It inspired him to write “Eugene Onegin’s Journey”, the poem “Tazit” and “Novel at a Caucasian Spa”. Pushkin also reflected on this trip in his travel sketches titled “A Journey to Arzrum”.

A month after Alexander Pushkin’s return from his trip to the Caucasus, Nikanor Grigoryevich Chernetsov, a landscape painter, graduate of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1827), and gold medalist, set out to those lands himself. He was invited by Pavel Ivanovich Kutaisov, a nobleman, senator, and chairman of the Saint Petersburg Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. Thanks to this invitation, Chernetsov received an assignment from the Imperial Academy to depict the region’s views. Chernetsov accompanied Kutaisov during his inspection of the Transcaucasia and also took independent trips to explore and capture as many views as possible. Upon returning to Saint Petersburg in the summer of 1831, Chernetsov came back with approximately 300 watercolor, sepia and pencil drawings and sketches. Later, he created oil paintings and larger watercolors based on these works. The Caucasus landscapes were displayed at the autumn exhibition of the Imperial Academy in Saint Petersburg in 1831. They were a great success.

Below, there is another inscription in pencil,