Summer Park in St. Petersburg
This park is in downtown St. Petersburg, Russia. French and Italian architects built the city, as well as the park in the painting. Tsar Peter the Great invited these craftsmen to create a capital with the best features of western civilization. The park, which holds great historical significance for Russian culture, is a place of sanctuary from the breathtaking speed of modern life -- where statues from Roman and Greek mythology and historical Russian characters are frozen in time. Despite its many glories this park, in two short weeks, it turns from precious summer to long gray snowy winters. The celebration of bright yellow, green and red colors makes this transition more dramatic. The wetness of the leaves, a three-dimensional illusion of the painting, invites you to spend some time in a world of nature set apart from the city in which it is located.