Background

Vasily Vereshchagin was born on October 26, 1842, in Cherepovets, Novgorod Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day Cherepovets, Vologda Oblast', Russian Federation). He was a son of Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin, a landowner of noble descent, and Anna Nikolaevna Vereshchagina. Also, the painter had three brothers — Alexander, Nikolay and Sergey.

Education

When Vasily was eight years old, his parents sent him to Tsarskoe Selo to enter the Alexander Cadet Corps. Three years later, he enrolled at the Sea Cadet Corps (present-day Naval Cadet Corps) in Saint Petersburg, making his first voyage in 1858.

Vereshchagin graduated from the Cadet School at the top of his class, but he could not overcome his passion for art and entered the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1860 to begin the study of drawing in earnest. His father was outraged by his actions and cut off all material assistance to his son. However, Vereshchagin worked and studied hard, winning a medal from the Academy in 1863 for his piece "Ulysses slaying the Suitors". However, dissatisfied with the conservatism and idealistic conventions of the academic system of teaching, Vasily left the educational establishment the same year, in 1863.

In 1864, Vereshchagin left for Paris, where he studied under the guidance of Jean-Léon Gérôme. Gérôme’s compositional skill in his historical paintings and effective handling of detail made a great impression on Vasily.

Career

Despite the fact, that Vereshchagin didn't become a naval officer, his career was linked with war, which in turn became the main topic of his paintings. In the Paris Salon of 1866, the painter showed his work "Dukhobors chanting their Psalms", and in the next year, he accompanied General Kaufman's expedition to Turkestan. At that time, Turkestan was a place of military confrontation. The painter decided to bear witness to the war and depict it true to life in his canvases.

In 1868, Vereshchagin joined the Russians, defending the Samarkand fortress. His heroism at the siege of Samarkand resulted in an award of the Order of St. George (4th class) for bravery and courage during his military service.

Vereshchagin was an avid traveller, returning to Saint Petersburg in late 1868, to Paris in 1869, back to Saint Petersburg later in the year, and then back to Turkestan via Siberia at the end of 1869. Some time later, in 1871, the painter organized his own atelier in Munich. Two years later, in 1873, he had one-man exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London. In 1874, another exhibition of his works followed in Saint Petersburg. Later the same year, Vasily left for an extensive tour of the Himalayas, India and Tibet, spending over two years in travel, coming back to Paris in late 1876.

During the time of Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, Vereshchagin fought for the Imperial Russian Army. He was active in the Battle of Shipka Pass and in the Siege of Plevna, where his brother was killed. At the end of the war, Vasily served as a secretary to General Skobelev in San Stefano (present-day Yeşilköy), a neighbourhood in Turkey.

When the war ended, the painter settled down in Munich, where he continued to create his works. Vereshchagin’s war paintings made such a great impression, that it gave rise to irritation and even fear in military circles in Russia and abroad. One day, in 1882, his exhibition in Berlin was visited by Field Marshal Helmuth Moltke, a German theorist, who viewed war as something inevitable and conducive to technical and even moral progress. Vereshchagin brought Moltke to his painting ''The Apotheosis of War". The picture evoked a sort of confusion in the Field Marshal. After his visit to the exhibition, Moltke issued an order, forbidding German soldiers to visit it. The Austrian war minister also imposed a taboo on visits to Vereshchagin’s exhibition. He declined the painter's offer to let Austrian officers see his pictures at the 1881 exhibition in Vienna free of charge.

A ban on exhibitions of Vereshchagin’s work was also enforced in Russia, as well as a ban on reproductions of them in books and periodicals amidst accusations of slandering the Russian army. The artist took these unjust accusations badly and burned three of his paintings. For thirty years, the Tsarist government didn't acquire a single picture by the already world-famous painter. Pavel Tretyakov bought most of his Turkestan works.

Between 1882-1883, the painter visited India. It was a productive period, however, and he painted more than 150 sketches, depicting the grandeur of Indian white-stone architecture. Vasily made some amazing Orientalist paintings there, including "Taj Mahal Mausoleum in Agra". At that time, Vereshchagin also devoted a series of pictures to the British takeover of India. His plan was to create a large pictorial poem about the historical fate of India, about its transformation from a powerful independent country into a British colony. His plan was only partly realized, however, with some of the best paintings in the cycle being "The Procession of the British" and "Native Authorities in Jeypore".

During the last 15 years of his life, Vasily worked on a series of paintings, devoted to Napoleon’s campaign and Russia’s courage in the war of 1812. His aim was to show in pictures the great national spirit of the Russian people and their heroism in fighting the enemy.

Vasily continued to travel until the last day of his life. He visited Syria, Palestine, America, the Philippines, Cuba and Japan. In 1904, he took part in Russo-Japanese War, which proved to be fatal for him. During the war, Vereshchagin was invited by Admiral Stepan Makarov to join him aboard Makarov's flagship "Petropavlovsk". On April 13, 1904, "Petropavlovsk" struck two mines, while returning to Port Arthur and sunk, taking with it most of the crew, including both Admiral Makarov and Vereshchagin.

Achievements

• Vasily Vereshchagin gained prominence for his war scenes. He was one of the most famous Russian war painters to be widely recognized abroad. Also, Vasily influenced the development of the style of painting, known as Orientalism. Moreover, Vereshchagin was one of the first painters to depict the cultural life and landscape of Central Asia and northern India.
  
  The painter's notable works include "After a good luck", "Mausoleum of Shah-i-Zinda in Samarkand", "At the Fortress Walls. Let them Enter", "The Apotheosis of War", "Triumph" and others.
  
  On August 14, 1868, Vasily attained the Order of St. George of 4th class for his bravery and courage during military service. Also, the town of Vereshchagino in Perm Krai is named after him, as well as a minor planet, 3410 Vereshchagin, discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravlyova in 1978.
  
  Today, the painter's works are to be seen in Moscow at the State Tretyakov Gallery and in Saint Petersburg at the State Museum of Russian Art.

Works

More photos

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  • Chinese house

  • Before the Confession at the Entrance to a Village Church

  • Cape Fiolent near Sevastopol

  • Lake Issyk Kul in the evening

  • Eunuch at the door of the harem

  • Spy

  • Ruins in Chuguchak

  • In the Hospital

  • Vehicle of rich people in Delhi

  • The interior of the yurt of rich Kirghiz

  • Tamerlan's gate

  • Napoleon and general Lauriston (Peace at all costs)

  • Picket on the Danube

  • The ruins of the Chinese shrine. Ak-Kent

  • Solomon's Wall

  • Site of the Battle Fought on July 18, 1877 in front of the Krishin Redoubt near Plevna

  • China tent

  • Radzhnagar. Marble, adorned with bas-reliefs quay on the lake in Udaipur

  • Monastery in a Rock. Ladakh

  • The colonnade in the Jain temple at Mount Abu in the evening

  • Present trophies

  • Statue of Vishnu in the temple of Indra in Ellora

  • At the Fortress Walls. Let them Enter

  • The children of the tribe Solonov

  • Before the attack. At Plevna

  • After good luck

  • Himalayan ponies

  • Parsi priest (fire-worshiper). Bombay

  • Church of God of War (shrine, Buddhist Temple)

  • Dutar-player

  • At Gorodnia. Breakthrough or Withdraw

  • The Northern Dvina

  • Main Street in Samarkand, from the height of the citadel in the early morning

  • Chorus of Dervishes, begging. Tashkent

  • Triumph

  • Kyrgyz tent on the Chu River

  • The Doors of Tamerlane

  • Cart for the Wounded

  • Unawares attack

  • Mounted Warrior in Jaipur

  • Inn near Tashkent

  • Burlaks

  • The Bacha and His Admirers

  • Fakirs

  • Kalmyk-lama

  • Turkestan soldiers in the winter form

  • Sinto Temple in Nikko

  • At Shipka all is quiet

  • Dervishes in holiday costumes. Tashkent

  • Corner of the Turkish Redoubt Captured on May 30 but Abandoned on May 31

  • About the war

  • Spy

  • Letter to home (Letter to Mother)

  • The icon of St. Nicholas with headwater Pinega

  • Glacier on the way from Kashmir to Ladakh

  • Bashi-bazouk (Albanian)

  • Ruins of a Theater in Chuguchak

  • Coolie (porter)

  • Mausoleum of Shah-i-Zinda in Samarkand

  • Mortally Wounded

  • A rich Kyrgyz hunter with a falcon

  • Taj Mahal Mausoleum

  • Samarkand zindan (Underground prison)

  • The rider in Jaipur

  • Interrupted Letter

  • Old molokan in a light shirt

  • In the Alatau mountains

  • Evening on the lake. One of the pavilions on the marble promenade in Radzhnagar (Principality of Udaipur)

  • The three main gods in a Chingacheling Buddhist monastery in Sikkim

  • Sowar, the Messenger of the Government

  • Elbrus

  • Kazakh woman

  • Road of the War Prisoners

  • Lully (Gypsy)

  • Frozen corpses of Turkish soldiers

  • Snowy trenches (Russian position on the Shipka Pass)

  • Cannon

  • Wait. Let them come nearer

  • Beggars in Samarkand

  • Indian

  • Kazakh with his national headdress

  • Fakir

  • Gur Emir Mausoleum. Samarkand

  • The porch of the church of John the Baptist in Tolchkovo. Yaroslavl

  • Interior of the Church of St. John the Evangelist on the Ishna near Rostov Yaroslavsky

  • Samarkand

  • Fire of Zamoskvorechye

  • Kyrgyz-bride outfit with a headdress covering the face

  • Burlak with the cap in his hand

  • Presentation of the bosses (Russian officer and Caucasians)

  • The Return from the Petroff Palace

  • In Jerusalem. Royal tombs

  • Temple in Tokyo

  • Arab on camel

  • Hemis Monastery in Ladakh

  • The iconostasis of the church of John the Theologian on Ishna near Rostov Yaroslavsky

  • Captured with arms - Shoot them

  • Japanese Priest

  • Throne Hall of the Great Mughal Shah Jahan and Aurang-Zeb in Delhi Fort

  • Defeated. Requiem

  • Beggar, Ninety Six Years Old

  • Bhil

  • After failure

  • At the Door of a Mosque

  • Migrations Kirghiz

  • In a Boat

  • Looking out

  • Wounded

  • Uzbek Woman in Tashkent

  • Warrant Officer Hassan-Beck Dzhagranov

  • Moslem Servant

  • On the road. Retreat and escape

  • Japanese Beggar

  • Chinese official of tribe Sibo

  • Portrait of a man in a white turban

  • Carved pillar in the refectory of the Petropavlovsk church in the village Puchugi in Vologda province

  • Napoleon in the Petroff Palace

  • Kalmyk-lama

  • Two Jews

  • On the Way. Bad News From France

  • West Tibetans

  • At the Assumption Cathedral

  • Two hawks (Bashi-bazouk)

  • Brahminic temple in Adelnure

  • Buddhist lama in a monastery on a holiday Pemionchi. Sikkim

  • Bania (trader). Bombay

  • Letter Remained Unfinished

  • In the Kremlin - A Fire

  • Interrogation of the renegade

  • Shipka field

  • Mountain stream in Kashmir

  • Zyrian

  • Moti Masjid (Pearl Mosque), Agra

  • Turkestan officer, when there will no campaign

  • Kalmyk chapel

  • In Defeated Moscow (Arsonists or Shooting in the Kremlin)

  • Camel in the courtyard of caravanserai

  • The end of Borodino battle

  • Nomadic road in the mountains of Ala Tau

  • Buddhist temple in Darjeeling. Sikkim

  • Moving columns of M.D. Skobelev through the Balkans

  • Burlak who hold hands on the strap

  • Chinese

  • Interior of the Wooden Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Puchug

  • Mendicant dervishes-douvana (holy fools)

  • Kokand soldier

  • Politicians in opium shop. Tashkent.

  • Indian motif

  • Japanese

  • Napoleon near Borodino

  • Yaqui

  • Boy-Uzbek

  • Solon boy

  • Mullah Rahim and Mullah Karim quarrel on his way to the market

  • Lezginka

  • Uzbek, the foreman (elder) village Hodzhagent

  • Afghan

  • Blowing from Guns in British India

  • Picket in the Balkan Mountains

  • Buddhist Prayer Machine

  • After the attack. Dressing station near Plevna

  • Lezgin Haji Murtuz-agha from Dagestan

  • The Sale of the Child Slave

  • Kazbek

  • Turkmens representing war trophies to Khiva khan

  • Taj Mahal Mausoleum

  • Shir Dor madrasah in Registan Square in Samarkand

  • Vehicle in Delhi

  • The Apotheosis of War

  • Retired Butler

  • Eaters of opium

  • The entrance door to the church under the Kazbek

  • Himalayas in the evening

  • Afghan

  • Posthumous monuments in Ladakh

  • Strengthening Naryn in Tien Shan (Celestial Mountains) near Kashgar border

  • A Garden gate in Chuguchak

  • Douvana (Begging dervishes)

  • Bukhara soldiers (Sarbaz)

  • Kyrgyz

  • Winners

  • Kazakh with fur hat

  • Himalayas. The main peak

  • The Night Bivouac of the Great Army

  • Roses in Ladakh

  • Portrait of a bacha

  • In India. Himalayas snow

  • Uzbek dishes seller

  • Marshal Davout in the Chudovo Convent

  • Bayonet Charge. Hurrah-Hurrah

  • Gate near the Qutub Minar. Old Delhi

  • Tomb of Sheikh Salim Chishti in Fatehpur Sikri

  • Soldiers in the snow

  • The Mount Kazbek

• sketch

  • Ananuri

  • Street in the village Hodzhagent

  • Dressing station

  • Triumph

  • At the Fortress Walls. Let them Enter

  • Beating the fiances of Penelope returning Ulysses

Views

Vereshchagin adhered to the opinion, that it was impossible to depict the reality of war pieces without taking part in the attacks, storms and victories personally. He always wanted to feel and go through it all himself.

Quotations: "I loved the sun all my life, and wanted to paint sunshine. When I happened to see warfare and say what I thought about it, I rejoiced that I would be able to devote myself to the sun once again. But the fury of war continued to pursue me."

"It would be impossible to achieve the aim I have set myself, to give society a picture of war as it really is, by observing battles through binoculars from a comfortable distance. I have to feel and go through it all myself. I have to participate in the attacks, storms, victories and defeats, experience the cold, disease, and wounds. I must not be afraid to sacrifice my flesh and my blood, otherwise my pictures will mean nothing."

Connections

Vasily was married twice. His first wife was Elisabeth Maria Fisher. Together they had a daughter. His second wife was Lidiya Vasilyevna Andreevskaya. Their marriage produced four children.

Father:

Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin

Mother:

Anna Nikolaevna Vereshchagina

Brother:

Alexander Vereshchagin

Brother:

Nikolay Vereshchagin

Brother:

Sergey Vereshchagin

Daughter:

Lydia Vereshchagina

Daughter:

Claudia Vereshchagina

Daughter:

Anna Vereshchagina

Son:

Vasily Vereshchagin

Second wife:

Lidiya Vasilyevna Andreevskaya

First wife:

Elisabeth Maria Fisher

Grandson:

Alexander Sergeevich Plevako

mentor:

Jean-Léon Gérôme

References

• 205 Color Paintings of Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin This book includes 205 high quality reproductions of Vereshchagin's greatest masterpieces with title and date.
  2012