View of the Smolny monastery from Bol'shaya Ohta

The Smolny Monastery complex — Elizabeth Petrovna's unfinished masterpiece of Russian Baroque architecture by Rastrelli — was one of the most distinctive landmarks of St. Petersburg's eastern reaches. Bogolyubov painted this view from the Bol'shaya Okhta bank of the Neva in 1851, early in his artistic career when he was developing his skills as a marine and topographic painter. The painting belongs to a tradition of St. Petersburg cityscape views that served both artistic and documentary purposes, recording the city's distinctive architecture across water. The Belarusian National Arts Museum in Minsk holds this canvas, reflecting the distribution of pre-revolutionary Russian art holdings across what is now the former Soviet space. The early date makes this one of Bogolyubov's first significant works.

The composition is structured around the dialogue between water and sky, with the monastery's distinctive domes and bell tower providing the vertical punctuation of the middle distance. The Neva's wide expanse in the foreground allows atmospheric depth to develop before the architectural subject. Early Bogolyubov shows careful tonal construction that he would later loosen into more confident plein-air handling.