Urban planning in Tomsk districts late in the 19th century (Tomsk Local History Museum documentation)

The history of town planning and architectural objects has been studied long ago through visual art. This is primarily associated with problems of their reconstruction and restoration. Architectural monuments often disappear without, and it is difficult to recreate them. Archival materials and visual aids help us to create an original architecture. At present, restorers actively use photographs of past years. But photography was invented late in the 19th century. Fine arts have been existed since the advent of man and solve the problems that predate that period. Therefore, the study of painting and graphics is important for both historians and architects-restorers.The paper focuses on the graphic works of J.F. Fleck, a painter and graphic artist, who lived in Tomsk in the 1870s. A series of his drawings published in Warsaw, offers an insight into the historical city development and the history of urbanism, that enables us to compare the past and the present. The paper analyzes architectural monuments survived to our days and shows the importance of the graphic artist in the study of contemporary architecture.