The foreground of the painting features a view of Red Square. The central part of the canvas depicts Saint Basil’s Cathedral with quite a few people in front of it. Among them, one can see some tourist groups listening to their guide, those strolling for pleasure and those hurrying up on business. On the right, the artist depicted a fragment of the Kremlin wall with the Spasskaya Tower, Lenin’s Mausoleum and viewing stands. The sky is overcast and the weather is about to get worse any minute but in the upper left corner we see some sun rays emerging from behind the clouds to light up the square.
The right lower corner of the painting bears Pyotr Ossovsky’s signature and the date. This canvas, a copy of one part of the Two Squares of Russia diptych, belongs to the painting collection of the Uzlovsky Museum of Fine Arts and Local History. The painting is executed in restrained colours, the artist accurately depicts the opulent decorations of Saint Basil’s Cathedral, the grandeur of the Spasskaya Tower and the monumental beauty of the Mausoleum.
Pyotr Ossovsky came up with an unusual idea of creating a diptych by bringing together the two most well-known squares in Russia — Palace Square in Saint Petersburg and Red Square in Moscow. The artist completed both paintings in 1985. The extraordinary fairytalish grandeur of Saint Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin Towers stand in contrast to the subtle and austere beauty of Saint Petersburg’s architecture in the artist’s Palace Square.
The two most distinctive architectural ensembles in Russia have witnessed both devastating tragedies and great victories in the Russian history. These paintings, as well as some other works by Pyotr Ossovsky, symbolize the forces that sustain the link of times reminding us about the past, effecting the present and looking to the future.
The painter of the diptych was born in Ukraine’s Kirovograd Region on 18 May 1925. During World War II, the art school that he studied at was evacuated from Moscow to Bashkiria, where he graduated from it in 1944. Until 1950, Pyotr Ossovsky was a student of the Surikov Art Institute in Moscow.
From 1954, he regularly exhibited his works, and in 1956 the artist became a member of the Union of Artists. A People’s Artist of the Soviet Union, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, holder of several Soviet and Russian orders, recipient of the USSR State Prize, Pyotr Ossovsky died in 2015.
The right lower corner of the painting bears Pyotr Ossovsky’s signature and the date. This canvas, a copy of one part of the Two Squares of Russia diptych, belongs to the painting collection of the Uzlovsky Museum of Fine Arts and Local History. The painting is executed in restrained colours, the artist accurately depicts the opulent decorations of Saint Basil’s Cathedral, the grandeur of the Spasskaya Tower and the monumental beauty of the Mausoleum.
Pyotr Ossovsky came up with an unusual idea of creating a diptych by bringing together the two most well-known squares in Russia — Palace Square in Saint Petersburg and Red Square in Moscow. The artist completed both paintings in 1985. The extraordinary fairytalish grandeur of Saint Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin Towers stand in contrast to the subtle and austere beauty of Saint Petersburg’s architecture in the artist’s Palace Square.
The two most distinctive architectural ensembles in Russia have witnessed both devastating tragedies and great victories in the Russian history. These paintings, as well as some other works by Pyotr Ossovsky, symbolize the forces that sustain the link of times reminding us about the past, effecting the present and looking to the future.
The painter of the diptych was born in Ukraine’s Kirovograd Region on 18 May 1925. During World War II, the art school that he studied at was evacuated from Moscow to Bashkiria, where he graduated from it in 1944. Until 1950, Pyotr Ossovsky was a student of the Surikov Art Institute in Moscow.
From 1954, he regularly exhibited his works, and in 1956 the artist became a member of the Union of Artists. A People’s Artist of the Soviet Union, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, holder of several Soviet and Russian orders, recipient of the USSR State Prize, Pyotr Ossovsky died in 2015.
