Eduard Gaertner. At the Spassky Gate of the Kremlin

The Berlin painter Eduard Gaertner (1801–1877) became famous for views of his native city, which he painted with an architect's precision. The painting "At the Spassky Gate of the Kremlin" is dated 1838, the time when the artist was living in Russia.

Gaertner was brought to Russia by his panorama of Berlin, painted from the roof of the Friedrichswerder Church. In 1837 the artist travelled to St Petersburg and sold a version of it: Emperor Nicholas I gave the panorama to his wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, a daughter of the King of Prussia. In 1838 and 1839 Gaertner remained in Moscow and St Petersburg. At that time he also created a panorama of the Moscow Kremlin consisting of three paintings; it is now in Berlin, in the New Pavilion in the park of Charlottenburg Palace.

Most of the landscapes in which the artist recorded his impressions of the trip to Russia have been lost. The view at the Spassky Gate is painted in oil on canvas.