In the late 18th — first half of the 19th century, traveling became a main theme not only in literature, but also in the visual arts.
That is why Alexander Ivanovich Plyushar (1777–1827), who owned a lithographic workshop in St. Petersburg, repeatedly published albums based on drawings by the outstanding genre painter Alexander Orlovsky (1777–1832). The lithographers Karl Kollmann (1786–1847) and Pavel Alexandrov (1798 — after 1832) carried out most of the orders, sometimes making their own additions.
The picture shows the interior of an inn. An inn was a commercial establishment used by travelers to rest and accommodate their horses and carriages. In the right part of the composition, the artist depicts a group of people with a lady sitting in the center, dressed in a travel outfit, with a long shawl, fashionable in the first half of the 19th century. A peasant woman standing next to her hands her a treat.
Alexander Pushkin wrote about the culinary treats
that could be enjoyed during a trip along the Moscow Highway:
