The painting and the title at a first glance, give the viewers an idea of the subject that has been painted. The painting represents a devastating flood that occured in St. Petersburg disrupting the everyday scenes infront of the Bolshoi theatre. Known for his urban landscape paintings, Fyodor Alekseyev was not just painting a disaster, he was giving form to his emotions as he saw his familiar town get flooded. Furthermore, he had been himslef associated with theatre as he was among the artists sent abroad by the Imperial Academy of Arts to acquire practical skills in theatrical scenic and decorative painting. He was sent to Venice to acquire specialised skills in theatrical scenic and decorative painting, (an effort connected with Russia’s broader ambition to develop its cultural institutions and establish St Petersburg as a major European cultural capital). Born in 1753, Fyodor Alekseyev, was a child of a caretaker in the Imperial Academy of Arts. Initially he studied at the Garrison school for several years and then joined the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts upon a petition by his father. Later, with Antonio Peresonotti, he studied scenic painting, which along with his venice visits, made him skilled in vedute (detailed cityscape) paintings. Tsar paul I, in 1800, assigned him to create vedutes of Moscow and following this he also worked as a teacher in academy, eventually becoming an acclaimed name associated with urban landscapes. "November 7, 1824 in the square at the Bolshoi Theatre" is his last painting where he paints St. petersburg, flooded. Here, we see, infront of the Bolshoi Theatre, the roads have been flooded and people trying to commute through the area. there are horses, donkeys, people rowing boat in the foreground and this road extends till far away, getting narrower as it goes. Although the skillfully drawn architecture evokes an orderly city, carefully planned, the flood infront, contrastingly forms a disruption, reminiscent of the fragility of human civilization.
The founding father of the Russian school of cityscape and thus called "Russian Canaletto", Alekseyev has clearly communicated the human and animal situation in a flood situation happening in a busy street as the city centre.
