Mikhail Scotti. The Sukharev Tower in Moscow, a Study

Mikhail Scotti's 1855 study, painted in oil on cardboard, preserves the appearance of a building that no longer exists in Moscow. The Sukharev Tower stood where Sretenka Street and 1st Meshchanskaya Street (now Prospekt Mira) crossed the Garden Ring, and it was demolished in 1934: the authorities decided that it obstructed traffic.

The tower was built in 1692–1695 to a design by Mikhail Choglokov and named after the streltsy regiment of Lavrenty Sukharev, which supported Peter I during his flight to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra in 1689. From 1701 the tower housed the School of Mathematics and Navigation, and in 1829 a reservoir of the Mytishchi water supply was installed in it. In 1926 the Moscow Communal Museum, as today's Museum of Moscow was then called, opened in the Sukharev Tower and remained there until the tower was demolished.

Mikhail Scotti (1814–1861) was a painter of Italian origin, an Academician (from 1843) and Professor (from 1855) of the Imperial Academy of Arts. From 1849 to 1855 he taught at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture.