This article examines the evolution of graphic arts as distinct disciplines after their introduction into general and specialized professional education in Bessarabia from the beginning of the 19th century. The analysis of ministerial directives and training methods, the comparison of the regulations and statutes of general and professional schools, the examination of the content of school exhibitions and of the procedures for organizing the teaching process in the field of fine arts in the framework of universal aesthetic education against the background of historical events are also carried out. Some historiographical errors are specified. The problem of the succession of educational institutions and those in the sphere of culture is also elucidated from a legal and material point of view after the reorganization and change of statutes, taking as examples the destinies of the Communal School of Drawing in Chisinau, the Public Library, the Bessarabia Society of Fine Arts and the Municipal Art Gallery.