The firm Scherer & Nabholz set up shop in Moscow by the late 1850s and remained the principal purveyor of Russian topographic views throughout the 19th century. Trees were a common subject in 19th-century photography: they were graphically powerful, did not move during exposure, and revealed aspects of the natural world. More important, because such photographs served no practical purpose in the way that portraits or architectural views did, they were clear declarations of the intent to make art rather than documents.