Capturing the Dreams. Drawings of Count P.S. Stroganoff (1823–1911) in the Collection of the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg)

In 1839-1840, Count Pavel Sergeevich Stroganov (1823-1911), from a famous artistic dynasty, created a series of drawings of Sorrento and the south coast. It is quite possible that as a child he made a preliminary idea of the area basing on paintings by Sylvester Shchedrin, which the artist sent to the homeland of the Count. Among all the places visited by Stroganov Sorrento made the strongest impression on him and he spent there two-months in August-September 1840. It is known from his unpublished diary notes, in which he also mentioned the plans to visit areas nearby Naples for a week in June 1840. 132 works by Pavel Stroganov for about a hundred years reamined in the State Russian Museum without the name of the author, who in the 1860-s dismantled them, correcting the old ones and making new comments in the margins. Only three drawings have the monogram "PS". His father, Count Sergei Grigoryevich (1794-1882), acquired works by members of the Posilippo school, but the contacts of the young nobleman with artists are unknown. Young Stroganov, imitating his father, made mostly landscapes in watercolor and pencil, but, as he believed, he was especially successful in genre pictures.