JOHANN WILHELM GOTTFRIED BARTH (1779-1852) Winter festival on Neva, circa 1815

gouache on paper 95 x 53,5 cm PROVENANCE: Private collection, Europe Private collection, Germany (for at least two generations) This magnificent winter panorama traces the events of St. Petersburg life since the time of Alexander I (1777 - 1825). Here are the winter slides, and the sleigh races, and the booths erected in winter on the ice of the Neva. Every winter, the Neva became the main 'square' of the city. According to the long-standing Russian tradition, folk festivals were held on the river, winter roads were built (or ice crossings). Johann Wilhelm Barth was a German architectural and landscape artist, who worked in the style of classicism. He studied under Johann Anton Form in 1796 at the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin and at the same time attended painting classes at the Academy of Arts, was a student of landscape artist Peter Ludwig Lyutka. He participated in exhibitions in 1800, 1804,1830 and 1840. In 1809, King Frederick William III sent Barth to Russia, where he lived until 1822 and created magnificent architectural landscapes in gouache and watercolour.