The Church of Vasili Blagennoi, Moscow — engraving

'The Church of Vasili Blagennoi, Moscow'.

This charming engraving presents a picturesque view of St. Basil's Cathedral (officially the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat) from the banks of the Moscow River. The composition captures the cathedral in its unmistakable form — a fairy-tale ensemble of colorful onion domes and tented towers rising above the Kremlin walls.

The scene is animated by daily life along the riverbank. In the foreground, a wooden platform or raft moored near the shore serves as a laundry site, where city dwellers are bent over washing clothes in the river's waters — a common sight in 19th-century Moscow before modern utilities. The Moscow River reflects the ancient walls and towers of the Kremlin, with St. Basil's standing as the crowning jewel of this quintessentially Russian panorama.

This steel engraving was created by James Harfield Kernot (1802–1858) after a drawing by Alfred Gomersal Vickers (1810–1837) , who traveled to Russia in 1833 specifically to create sketches for the publication . It was published in Leitch Ritchie's "A Journey to St. Petersburg and Moscow through Courland and Livonia" (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1836), which appeared as "Heath's Picturesque Annual" for 1836 . The book contained 25 steel engravings by leading masters after Vickers' drawings.

The print is a fine example of the steel engraver's art, capturing both architectural detail and the atmospheric charm of old Moscow.

Technique, Material: Steel engraving / Paper
Artist: Alfred Gomersal Vickers, Engraver: James Harfield Kernot
Date: "A Journey to St. Petersburg and Moscow through Courland and Livonia", London, 1835.
Size: sheet 18x26.6 cm, image 12x17 cm.