Pavel Svinyin

He left one of the first written depictions of black church music in the United States[2] and launched the publication of the literary magazine Otechestvennye Zapiski in 1818.

Svinyin was on friendly terms with many leading Russian writers, including Pushkin and Gogol, and promoted the careers of talented peasants.

His personal collection, known as the "Russian Museum", featured a number of valuable paintings, statues, manuscripts, antiques, coins, and gems.

"Merrymaking at a Wayside Inn", depicts travelers grabbing a hurried and impromptu dance on the road in early 1810s America (in rural Pennsylvania), and shows practices which would have been considered inelegant or shockingly informal in many socially genteel circles in Europe at the time (such as smoking in the presence of ladies, smoking indoors, a man taking off his tailcoat in the presence of ladies—leaving him wearing only his waistcoat and shirt on top—and holding onto one's horsewhip while dancing).

At left, a couple is indulging in what could be considered an inappropriate public display of affection by some European standards of etiquette, while at right a black fiddler provides the music for the dance.