Lot 25: Joseph Hearn (British, fl. c. 1790)

Gostinoy Dvor, ou les Boutiques public la Perspective de Nevsky a St. Petersburg
bears inscription verso
watercolour with original wash line
45.1 x 59 cm. (17 3/4 x 23 1/4 in.)

The Hon. Christopher Lennox-Boyd.
A private collection.

The above work is a preparation for one of the set of eight aquatints by Thomas Malton (1726-1801) after the drawings by Hearn. Malton worked on these prints from 1789-90 and they were available for sale in St. Petersburg from 1790.

Constructed between 1757 and 1785, Gostiny Dvor was one of the world's first shopping malls and occupies a whole city block on Nevsky Prospekt.

Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg was planned by the French architect Alexandre Jean Baptiste LeBlond, working for the city's founder Peter the Great. The street originally called the Great Perspective Road was cut through 4.5 km of forest land in 1718 and for many years was roamed by wolves. Stretching from the Admiralty in the north to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, it is renowned for its splendid architecture and thrives as the heart of this great city.