In 1704 a formal garden that would serve as the Tsar’s summer residence was laid down on the banks of the Neva at the orders of Peter the Great and under his personal supervision. The garden contained fountains, galleries and pavilions for entertainment, and there was also a small stone palace. Balls and assemblies took place in the Summer Garden, and people attended at the personal invitation of Peter. The garden eventually became a favourite place for city-dwellers to relax and the Summer Palace was turned into a museum.

Martynov Andrei

Martynov, Andrei Efimovich
1768, St Petersburg – 1826, Rome
Painter, draughtsman, watercolourist, engraver, lithographer. Son of a soldier of the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment. Studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1773–1788). Fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Italy (1788). Worked under Jakob Philipp Hackert in Italy. Returned to Russia (1794). Academician (1795), councillor (1802). Accompanied Count Golovkin’s embassy to China (1805–1806). Published the Painterly Journey from Moscow to the Chinese Border album of etchings. Worked for the Imperial Theatres (1808–1819). Travelled along the Baltic coastline with the suite of Empress Elizabeth Alexeyevna, painted watercolour views of Plen (1810). Produced the Views of St Petersburg and Environs series of lithographed watercolours. Painted and engraved views of Siberia, Crimea, River Volga, Mongolia and Italy. Went to Italy to recuperate from illness (1824).