Ivan Aivazovsky. View of Moscow from the Sparrow Hills

Ivan Aivazovsky (1817–1900) went down in history as one of the best-known marine painters of the 19th century, but this 1851 painting is devoted not to the sea but to Moscow. The artist looks at the city from the Sparrow Hills, the high right bank in a bend of the Moskva River, which rises up to 80 metres above the water. They offer the widest panorama of the capital.

Aivazovsky turned to the view of Moscow from the Sparrow Hills more than once: a painting of the same subject made in 1848 is held by the Russian Museum. And in 1851 he also created a large "Panorama of Moscow with the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour", measuring 223 by 336 centimetres, which is in the collection of the Moscow Kremlin Museums.

By this time Aivazovsky was an Academician (from 1845) and Professor (from 1847) of the Imperial Academy of Arts, and from 1844 he had held the title of Painter of the Main Naval Staff. The painting is executed in oil on canvas.