ABSTRACT
Russian-British relations have been studied largely in terms of political and broad cultural connections. There has been much research from this point of view in the areas of landscape gardening and architecture. The character of this relationship was, to some extent, defined by the specific ways in which Russians perceived and reacted to British art. This chapter examines what Russians knew about British visual art, especially painting; how Russians assessed British painting; and how Russian painters' reactions to British painting were followed up in their own work. Italy afforded the first immediate point of contact Russians had with British painters. Anton Losenko (1737-73), an academician at the St Petersburg Academy of Arts and painter of historical themes spent three years between 1765 and 1769 in Rome. In the genre of historical painting Russian interest in British painting was furthered by the simultaneous adoption of neoclassicism in both countries.
