Alexander Column During a Storm
1834
- Period Early 19th century
- CategoryLandscape
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Vasily Rayev depicts the legendary storm that broke out over St Petersburg on the night of the grand opening on 30 August 1834. Vasily Zhukovsky wrote: «Night fell and the whole sky was covered with storm-clouds. Finally the storm broke. Lightning bolts struck in a thousand places, as if they stood above the town ... in the midst of these incessant, sudden flittings from darkness to light, the buildings and the massive column appeared and disappeared ... All at once the column was shining clearly out of the darkness, throwing a momentary shadow over the surrounding illuminated square, before disappearing with it ... It was like some inexplicable sign; an unwitting, frightened thought flitted back to the days of the enemy invasion, when destructive stormclouds had arisen over Russia.» Russian Museum: From Icons to the Modern Times. Palace Editions, St Petersburg, 2015. P. 132.