Brief Biography-Fyodor Yakovlevich Alekseyev was born in Saint Petersburg c.1753. He attended the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1764 and was a disciple of Antonio Peresinotti, a teacher of decorative art. He later spent four years in Venice, where he copied the old masters when studying to be a theatre artist. However, the Academy put him in the Theatre Decoration School when he returned to Saint Petersburg. He continued to paint his subjects, and with his ‘View of the Palace Embankment from the Fortress’, he became an Academician. Tsar Paul 1 commissioned him to paint street and architectural scenes of Moscow in 1800, and later, he painted views of Saint Petersburg. He taught at the Academy and enjoyed considerable success until his old age; however, he was sadly penniless at his death.