Simultaneously with the searches in the field of modern architecture, at the end of the 20’s – beginning of the 30’s Iakov Chernikhov created the cycle of “Pictorial architecture”, which included the “Architectural fairy-tales”, “Architectural romanticism”, “Old towns”, “Architecture of wooden houses”, “Mills”.

“Working on some problems of architecture and making experiments in its various fields of obtaining architectural image, I encountered the problem of “formation of structure”, conception of the image and artistic expressiveness. Therefore I had to study and accumulate the historical material. In the human progress of gradual perfection that enabled the way of formation of architectural image to be covered from the time of prehistoric life to our epoch, it is necessary to search for the genuine fundamentals of architecture.

The new work was named as “Architectural romanticism” owing to the fact that the historical architectural material in my compositions acquired somewhat romantic character on the basis of the fantasies and various hypotheses. The history of the human culture left so small traces concerning architecture in its initial period, that in most of the cases we are forced to resort to hypotheses of the construction origin.

The compositional fantasy illustrates each subject as “almost possible” structure. In my compositions I show the development of the «technique of erection of structures by the ancient man”.

“The following subjects on architectural romanticism have been developed by me:
1-log houses, 2-wattle and doub houses, 3-wooden structures, 4-castle structures, 5-windmills, 6-industrial structures, pile houses, 7-cave dwellings, 8-fortress structures, 9-tower structures, 10-old graveyards.

It is necessary to single out in particular a group of the works of realistic character restoring in the artistic images all that has been preserved in our country and in the other countries till now. The case in point is about the windmills we have available, though in very modest quantity, but quite sufficient for the completeness of the material that can be incited by this subject matter.

No doubt, the windmills should be referred to the category of interesting architectural entities. The peculiarity and characteristic appearance of these structures distinguish them among many other antiquity monuments”.

Iakov Chernikhov