Venice 

Konstantin Gorbatov painted this image of Venice, sometime before his death in 1945. It's a postcard view, full of light and picturesque details. Gorbatov was a Russian émigré, part of the diaspora that followed the 1917 Revolution. But Russia's loss was Western Europe's gain; he was one of many artists who fled the new Soviet Union and enriched the art scenes of cities like Berlin and Venice. This painting makes no obvious reference to those world-historical events, but it does give us insight into the mindset of an exile, someone cut off from their homeland, nostalgic perhaps for a world that has been lost. What do we know about the politics of an image like this? Well, Russia had a long tradition of academic landscape painting, but, after the Revolution, artists were expected to serve the needs of the state. Gorbatov, on the other hand, was free to paint what he liked – in this case, a charming and saleable view of a famous city. As historians, we need to look beyond the surface and consider the artist's background, his relationship to the art market, and the social and political context in which he was working. By doing so, we can gain a deeper understanding of the artwork and its place in history.