V. A. Bobrov. Etching "Peter I", 1878

The engraved portrait "Peter I" was made as an etching in 1878 by Viktor Alekseyevich Bobrov. The image of Peter is especially significant for Azov: it was during his Azov campaigns, in 1696, that the Turkish fortress of Azak fell to Russian troops.

Viktor Bobrov (1842–1918) was a portrait painter and graphic artist, an academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts from 1873. He took up etching in 1875 and produced about a hundred works in this technique. Among his portraits are images of Emperor Alexander II and Peter the Great.

The sheet is printed on paper. Etching lets the engraver draw with a needle through a varnish ground, after which the lines are bitten with acid, so the image keeps the freedom and lightness of a drawing.