Grigory Grigorievich Gagarin is a universal personality. Rarely did any of his contemporaries combine such a variety of talents embodied in different spheres of creative activity. This talented, European-educated artist proved himself both in painting and in graphics, where he illustrated the works of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, Vladimir Alexandrovich Sollogub, and in architecture - in the construction of churches of the Russian-Byzantine style, which he himself often painted. No less important are Gagarin's scientific research in the field of archeology, as well as his activities as vice president of the Imperial Academy of Arts.