JOSEPH HEARNE | The Kremlin, Moscow

Joseph Hearne travelled to Russia in 1787 and settled in St. Petersburg. He remained there until at least 1793, the year he married Ellen Richest, the daughter of a Russian Company merchant. Hearne’s reputation rests on a group of engravings that were executed between 1789 and 1790 by Thomas Malton (1726–1801), from the watercolour drawings made by Hearne upon his arrival in Russia.

Hearne's watercolours are held in the following public collects ions: the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Victoria and Albert and the British Museum in London. Anthony Cross writes extensively about the artist in his book By The Banks of the Neva: Chapters from the lives and careers of the British in Eighteenth-century Russia.

The current composition shows the view of the Moscow Kremlin from the east with the Bolshoy Moskovetsky Bridge that spans Moskva River and connects Red Square with Bolshaya Ordyanka Street.