Vichy

A second Vichy panel from 1870 alongside the Villa in Vichy suggests Bogolyubov made at least one productive visit to the French spa town that year, producing multiple studies. The town of Vichy straddled the Allier River, and its resort character — gardens, promenades, elegant villas, parks designed for leisurely walking — offered picturesque material very different from his coastal subjects. That Bogolyubov chose to paint Vichy twice in the same year may reflect a social or therapeutic visit extended long enough for sustained pictorial work. The panel format is consistent with his practice of making rapid outdoor studies during travels, and the 1870 date means these works were produced in the tense atmosphere of the Franco-Prussian War's outbreak, though the Vichy region was not directly affected by the conflict. The Radishchev Museum's holding of both Vichy panels preserves the pair as historical documents of a specific visit.

The second Vichy panel likely explores the same town from a different vantage or at a different time of day, testing the compositional and tonal possibilities that the first study identified. Bogolyubov's panel technique by 1870 was fully developed — confident, economical, and responsive to the quality of French resort-town light and architecture.