Ada is by far the most painterly of Nabokov's novels. From childhood on, Nabokov's life was unusually rich in the fine arts. The family had a substantial collection of paintings, many inherited from earlier generations; included were a Rubens, a Palma Vecchio, a Teniers, a Ruisdael, and a Zurbarán. The printed catalogue of the Nabokov family library shows not only dozens of art books in various languages but over a hundred well-illustrated volumes from the German series Künstler – Monographien. The children had private tutors for drawing and painting, among them Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, whose drawings of St. Petersburg scenes were to be commemorated in a 1926 Nabokov poem dedicated to his old teacher. A ‘rose-and-haze’ pastel of Nabokov's mother by Leon Bakst, Dobuzhinsky's colleague in the World of Art group, hung in his father's study (SM 190). Works by other World of Art luminaries graced the house: Konstantin Somov (whose 1908 ‘Rainbow’ hung in the mother's study) and Alexander Benois. The young Nabokov was no stranger to the great museums; his family lived within easy walking distance of the Hermitage, and their extended foreign travels provided opportunities to visit many of Europe's major art collections. Not surprisingly, the young Nabokov hoped to become a painter. Fate dictated otherwise, but his love of painting proved to be life-long and was sustained during the two decades spent living in and near London, Berlin and Paris with their rich treasures of paintings and sculpture, and then once again when he returned to Europe. Nabokov's love of painting was to leave a strong imprint on his prose. In his essay ‘Inspiration,’ where he attests the highly visual nature of his literary creativity, he describes the ‘forefeeling’ of a narrative as ‘an instant vision turning into rapid speech. …If some instrument were to render this rare and delightful phenomenon, the image would come as a shimmer of exact details’ (SO 309).