In Petrovsky palace (Waiting for peace)

Held at the Museum of the Patriotic War of 1812, 'In Petrovsky Palace (Waiting for Peace)' depicts Napoleon Bonaparte at Petrovsky Palace — the imperial summer residence northwest of Moscow where Napoleon retreated after the fires forced him from the Kremlin in September 1812. The weeks Napoleon spent at Petrovsky, waiting for a Russian peace overture that never came, were among the most psychologically revealing of the entire campaign. He had expected the fall of Moscow to force Alexander I to negotiate; instead, the Tsar refused all contact and the Grande Armée began its catastrophic retreat. The title's parenthetical — 'Waiting for Peace' — frames Napoleon's wait with ironic precision. Vereshchagin's interest in Napoleon's psychological state during the campaign produced several works that humanize the emperor's experience of failure.

An interior scene of a figure waiting requires Vereshchagin to adapt his characteristic techniques to a palatial interior setting — the quality of light in an early 19th-century imperial residence, the furnishings and atmosphere of a space temporarily occupied by a conqueror. His handling of interior light and architectural space is less familiar territory than his outdoor subjects.