A handwritten drawing by N. V. Gogol

Following the special atmosphere of the time, in which it was inherent to surround himself with creativity and art in all its manifestations, Gogol discovered his field - drawing. Gogol, like Pushkin, created sketches, but the nature and manner of execution of his drawings were very different. Pushkin preferred to depict portraits, vivid emotions, and Gogol to sketch architectural structures, various details and transfer what he saw, like a summary on a piece of paper.

One of Gogol's favorite drawing topics was architecture. In his sketches, he tried to convey the features of the structures and the atmosphere characteristic of the time of their construction. So, based on the details in the presented drawing, the poet depicted a part of the Gothic structure, the distinctive feature of which was the angularity and sharpness of the forms.

Interestingly, the writer tried to study painting, but all his attempts remained incomplete, although he had a penchant for drawing since childhood.

At the Nizhyn gymnasium, Gogol did not succeed much in the exact sciences, but he was fond of theater, literature and drawing. He got himself a handwritten compendium, which he called "A Book of all sorts, or a Handy Encyclopedia." There Gogol brought in a variety of information from books, lessons and just conversations, which for some reason he considered important to remember. Gogol accompanied all this with illustrations, which he enthusiastically copied from books.

Gogol tried himself in the design of works, so for the second edition of "Dead Souls" he personally created the title illustration - vignette. It is sometimes repeated in modern publications.