Adolph Jebens depicts the changing of the Izmailovsky Life Guards at the corner of the Palace Embankment and the Admiralty Passage. The eastern wing of the Admiralty can be seen in the distance. A gas streetlight stands next to the sentry-box. Nevsky Prospect and Palace Embankment were the first parts of St Petersburg to be lit by gas lamps (1839).

Jebens Adolph

Jebens, Adolph
1819, Elbing, Germany — 1888, Berlin
German painter, draughtsman, portraitist, genre artist. Studied at the Königliche Akademie der Künste in Berlin and under Paul Delaroche in Paris (1839–1840). Worked in Russia (1845–1863). Court portraitist in St. Petersburg. Painted genre scenes with military subjects prevailing. Academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts for “folk scenes” painting (1861).