Clouds over St. Isaac's Cathedral

A wide, low horizon stretches beneath an enormous bank of white and gray cumulus clouds filling most of the sky. A stone embankment with a tall lamppost runs along the foreground, and across the water the low profile of St. Isaac's Cathedral appears, its gilded dome catching light among distant rooftops; small figures and a boat dot the shoreline.

The clouds are painted in broad, confident strokes of white, gray and pale blue, with warm ochre touches picking out the sunlit dome. Brushwork throughout is loose and gestural, and the vast sky dwarfing the thin strip of city conveys an open, breezy sense of scale.