A Cinereous Vulture in Balkan lands

After becoming an Academician in 1876, Polenov returned to Russia with the intention of studying ancient Russian monuments. However, with the advent of the Russo-Turkish war he was forced to change his plans. In October 1877 he was appointed official artist to the staff of Grand Duke Alexander, the future Emperor Alexander III, and travelled to the Front in Bulgaria. There he painted numerous oils depicting the activities of the Russian military and the ethnographical landscape of the region. Some of these works, for example 'A Montenegrian' and 'The Bulgarian village of Brestovats', were exhibited at the Academy or at the All-Russian exhibition held in Moscow in 1882, and the majority became part of the future Emperor's personal collection of over 800 works. This vast collection was housed in the Imperial residences including the Winter Palace and Alexander Palace at Tsarkoe Selo but the majority were located in Anichkov Palace.
Situated at the intersection of Nevskii Prospect and the Fontanka, Anichkov Palace was completed during the reign of Empress Elisabeth in 1755 and named after Colonel Mikhail Anichkov whose regiment was responsible for the construction of Anichkov Bridge. Originally commissioned for Aleksei Razumovskii, the lover of the Empress, the Palace was fated to be a token of Imperial amour and was later presented to Prince Grigorii Potemkin by Catherine the Great. During Alexander III's reign, the Palace was the favoured residence of the Emperor and the childhood home of Nicholas II. Following the October revolution in 1917, Anichkov Palace was nationalised and much of its collection dispersed.