Musorgsky and Hartman's relationship was founded in their passion for art and music. Hartman's paintings were a large source of inspiration for Musorgsky and his compositions, where each section of Pictures was written to represent a certain painting. Not only were the pieces written to represent a painting, the mood that is depicted in each painting is reflected in each piece. The structure of Pictures resembles a trip to an art exhibition, with it's promenades between the main paintings/pieces.