The painter Mikhail Lebedev was a student of the landscape painter Maxim Vorobyov. Lebedev was called an innovator of the genre, since he was one of the first in Russia who began to paint landscapes mainly from nature, not from sketches in a workshop. Such work was an innovation for graduates of the Academy of Fine Arts in the early 1830s.
At the end of the summer of 1834, Lebedev, as a pensioner of the Academy of Fine Arts, came to Italy to study art. He settled in Rome and, according to the memoirs of fine art expert Andrey Somov, Lebedev ‘began to work with ardor on the study of Italian nature.’
Lebedev wrote to his mentor Mikhail Vorobyov:
At the end of the summer of 1834, Lebedev, as a pensioner of the Academy of Fine Arts, came to Italy to study art. He settled in Rome and, according to the memoirs of fine art expert Andrey Somov, Lebedev ‘began to work with ardor on the study of Italian nature.’
Lebedev wrote to his mentor Mikhail Vorobyov: