The genre diversity of the master's works, kept in the Tretyakov Gallery’s collection, makes it possible to learn all facets of his talent. The works displayed in the exposition prove the artist’s excellent mastery of drawing and painting techniques, observation and fine artistic taste.

The artist revealed his brilliant drawing skill in the compositions with multi-figured scenes when he was in Italy on the Academy’s grant. Performing landscapes, genre scenes and portraits he was romantically inspired by Italy’s art monuments and nature. Stylistic qualities of romanticized classicism are evident in the expressive images of S.F. Shchedrin and M.Y. Naryshkina with her daughter.

In Petersburg, the artist took to monumental church painting, which he combined with teaching in the Academy of Arts. Basin’s major works were connected with the St. Isaac Cathedral where the artist painted two chapels and completed Bryullov unfinished paintings. His canvas Building Attic of the Academy of Arts was his individual response to the fascination of the epoch with the interior genre.

In his Rest of the Holy Family on the way into Egypt, the artist shows his mastery of composition and subtle coloristic flair creating a vivid and convincing genre scene imbued with elevated harmony and nobility. Piotr Basin’s artwork was appreciated by his contemporaries; yet, in light of the trends of the 1860s, his artistic principles began to be perceived as irrelevant to the spirit of the time.