Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin (1842-1904) - Russian painter and writer, one of the most famous battle painters.
Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin was born on October 14 (26), 1842 in Cherepovets (now the Vologda Region) into the family of a local marshal of the nobility. He had three brothers. All were assigned to military schools. The younger ones, Sergei (1845-1878) and Alexander (1850-1909), became professional soldiers; senior, Nikolai (1839-1907) - a public figure.
Vasily at the age of nine entered the naval cadet corps. At the end of this institution, after a short period of service, the newly promoted midshipman retired and entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, where he studied from 1860 to 1863 with A. T. Markov, F. A. Moller and A. E. Beideman. Leaving the Academy, he went to the Caucasus, where he stayed for about a year. Then he went to Paris, where he studied and worked under the guidance of Jerome (1864-1865)
In March 1865, Vereshchagin returned to the Caucasus and continued to paint from life.
In the autumn of 1865, Vereshchagin visited St. Petersburg, and then returned to Paris again to continue his studies. He spent the winter of 1865-1866 studying at the Paris Academy. In the spring of 1866, the artist returned to his homeland, having completed his official training.
In 1867, he gladly accepted the invitation of the Turkestan Governor-General, General K.P. Kaufman, to be an artist with him. Arriving in Samarkand after its capture by Russian troops on May 2, 1868, Vereshchagin received a baptism of fire, having withstood a heavy siege of this city by rebellious local residents with a handful of Russian soldiers. The outstanding role of Vereshchagin in this defense brought him the Order of St. George, 4th class (August 14, 1868), which he proudly wore, although he generally denied any awards:
At the beginning of 1869, with the assistance of Kaufman, he organized a “Turkestan exhibition” in the capital, where he demonstrated his works written in Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara, in the Kazakh steppes and the city of Turkestan. After the end of the exhibition, Vereshchagin again travels to the Turkestan region, but through Siberia.
This time the artist made a trip to Semirechye and Western China. Among the works of Vereshchagin dedicated to the Semirechye and Kyrgyzstan are a rich Kyrgyz hunter with a falcon, views of the mountains near the village of Lepsinskaya, the valley of the Chu River, Lake Issyk-Kul, the snowy peaks of the Kyrgyz Range, Naryn in the Tien Shan. Vereshchagin created five sketches in the mountains near Issyk-Kul, the brightest of them is the Barskoon Passage. He made sketches in the Boom Gorge, visited Lake Alakol, climbed the high passes of the Alatau ridges.
At that time, in Western China, the troops of the Bogdykhan pacified the Dungans (Chinese Muslims), who raised the banner of rebellion in Shaanxi province seven years ago. A little later, the Dungan rebellion also swept the Kuldzha region. On the streets of New Kulja (Hui-Yuan-Cheng) and Chuguchak lay mountains of ash and piles of human bones. Vereshchagin bitterly painted the ruins of local cities. The famous painting “The Apotheosis of War” was created under the impression of the story of how the despot of Kashgar, Valikhan-Tore, executed a European traveler and ordered his head to be placed on top of a pyramid made of the skulls of other executed people.
In artistic terms, Vereshchagin's impressions from personal participation in this defense and other military operations during the conquest of Turkestan, as well as from his second trip there in 1869, gave him material for such bright pictures, as “Let them in”, “Entered”, “Surrounded”, “Pursued”, “Attacked by surprise”, etc., which were part of the huge “Turkestan series”, made by the artist in Munich in 1871-1874 and which had tremendous success in Europe and Russia.
In 1871, Vereshchagin moved to Munich and began to work on paintings based on oriental subjects. At the same time it began living together with his first wife Elizaveta Fisher (due to Vereshchagin's skepticism towards church rites, they got married only in 1883 in Vologda).
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Vereshchagin Vasily Vasilyevich (Vereshchagin Vasily), Russian artist, master of battle painting. Born in Cherepovets on October 14 (26), 1842 in the family of a landowner. In 1850-1860 he studied at the St. Petersburg Cadet Corps, graduating with the rank of midshipman. Sailed in 1858-1859 on the frigate "Kamchatka" and other ships to Denmark, France, England. In 1860, Vereshchagin entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, but left it in 1863, dissatisfied with the teaching system. He attended the workshop of Jean Leon Gerome at the Paris School of Fine Arts (1864).
All his life Vereshchagin was a tireless traveler. In an effort (in his own words) "to learn from the living chronicle of the history of the world", he traveled around Russia, the Caucasus, the Crimea, the Danube, Western Europe, twice visited Turkestan (1867-1868, 1869-1870), participating in colonial campaigns of Russian troops, twice - in India (1874-1876, 1882). In 1877-1878 he participated in the Russian-Turkish war in the Balkans. He traveled a lot, in 1884 he visited Syria and Palestine, in 1888-1902 the USA, in 1901 the Philippines, in 1902 Cuba, in 1903 Japan. The impressions from the trips were embodied in large cycles of sketches and paintings. In Vereshchagin's battle paintings, the underside of the war is revealed in a journalistic way, with harsh realism.
Although his famous “Turkestan series” has a well-defined imperial-propaganda orientation, in the paintings over the winners and the vanquished, a sense of tragic doom gravitates everywhere, emphasized by a dull yellowish-brown, truly “desert” color. The painting Apotheosis of War (1870-1871, Tretyakov Gallery), depicting a pile of skulls in the desert, became a famous symbol of the entire series; on the frame there is an inscription: "Dedicated to all the great conquerors: past, present and future."
The "Turkestan" series of paintings by Vereshchagin is not inferior to the "Balkan" series. In it, the artist, on the contrary, throws down a direct challenge to the official pan-Slavist propaganda, recalling the fatal miscalculations of the command and the terrible price paid by the Russians for the liberation of the Bulgarians from the Ottoman yoke. The Defeated canvas is especially impressive. Memorial service (1878–1879, Tretyakov Gallery), where under a cloudy sky a whole field of soldiers' corpses is spread, sprinkled with only a thin layer of earth. His series Napoleon in Russia (1887–1900) also won wide acclaim. The artist Vereshchagin was also a gifted writer, the author of the book At War in Asia and Europe. Memories (1894); Of great interest are also the Selected Letters of the Artist Vereshchagin (republished in 1981).
Vereshchagin died during the Russo-Japanese War, on March 31 (April 13), 1904, during the explosion of the battleship Petropavlovsk on the roadstead of Port Arthur.
“Whatever war anyone unleashes, in any case, it is a stupid desire to own the world and its resources” - V. Vereshchagin
From the time of Peter I to our times, a conditional list of "100 greatest Russian artists" has been formed in Russian painting. Of course, these figures are significantly underestimated, and it seems to me that the real list of great Russian artists is not so small, and certainly exceeds this magically verified hundred. But, apparently, it just so happened among real connoisseurs and pseudo-lovers of art that there must certainly be a certain list, in which some, taking into account their popularity, fall, while others remain below the line of this immensely huge “greatness” (forgive me for the tautology).
In fairness, you need to understand that almost always only the most “popular” became great. That is, not those who are content with the sighs of an enthusiastic public - “I am delighted!”, “Stupidity!”, “Charming, charming!”, And not those who are recognized on the street, and not even those who gather crowds of onlookers at the first -second-rate exhibitions, and only those artists for whose work ardent collectors are ready to tear each other apart. It is here, at this stage, that the popularity of the artist begins. Only then does the transformation of a nameless and talented artist into "great" ones take place.
Speaking of the great Russian artists, the brightest are remembered - Aivazovsky, Repin, Serov, Shishkin, Malevich, Vasnetsov, Vereshchagin and others no less influential and great ... The work of each of them is invaluable and great.
But if you measure “greatness”, breaking it down into many components, then “among the worlds, in the twinkling of the luminaries of one Star, I repeat the name ...” - Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin - “the most popular person in all Russian art at one time - not only in Russia, but in all over the world, which made not only St. Petersburg and Moscow, but also Berlin, Paris, London and America to worry and get excited to the point of stupefaction ”(A. Benois)
“Vereshchagin is not just an artist, but something more,” Kramskoy wrote after the first acquaintance with his painting, and a few years later he again remarked: “Despite the interest of his art collections, the author himself is a hundred times more interesting and instructive.”
In literature, this battle-painter was Tolstoy (in "War and Peace"), and in painting - Vereshchagin. No, there were other well-known and great ones - Roubaud, Grekov, Villevalde, Karazin, but it was with the arrival of the pacifist Vasily Vereshchagin in painting that the world of war on canvases ceased to be a bright pink game, a war game in which polished-glossy soldiers frolicked to the fullest.
From the memoirs of the Russian art critic Alexander Benois:
“Before Vereshchagin, all the battle paintings that could only be seen in our palaces, at exhibitions, in essence, depicted chic parades and maneuvers, among which the field marshal and his retinue raced on a magnificent horse. Here and there in these pictures, in very moderate numbers and always in beautiful poses, were scattered pro forma a few clean dead. The very nature that surrounded these scenes was combed and smoothed in a way that in reality this could not be even on the quietest and most calm days, and at the same time, all such paintings and pictures were always executed in that sweet manner that was brought to us in times of Nicholas the First Ladurner, Sauerweid and Raffe, who lived with us for some time. All our home-grown battle-players (Timm, Kotzebue, Filippov, Gruzinsky, Villevalde, and others) successfully adopted this pink style, who wrote countless, very polished, very tasty and deadly monotonous battles.
Everyone was so accustomed to portraying the war exclusively in the form of an entertaining, smoothed and pink holiday, some kind of fun with adventures, that it never occurred to anyone that in reality it did not look like that. Tolstoy in his "Sevastopol" and in "War and Peace" destroyed these illusions, and Vereshchagin then repeated in painting what Tolstoy had done in literature.
Naturally, when, instead of the clean pictures of Villevalde, the Russian public saw the pictures of Vereshchagin, who suddenly so simply, cynically exposed the war and showed it as a dirty, disgusting, gloomy and colossal villainy, they screamed in every way and began to hate and love such a daredevil with all their might ... "
"Apotheosis of War", 1871
Vereshchagin is known to his contemporaries for The Apotheosis of War (1871). The artist's most famous masterpiece rests within the walls of the Tretyakov Gallery. There is also a note to the picture left by the artist on the frame - "Dedicated to all great conquerors, past, present and future."
The power of this painting was such that one Prussian general advised Emperor Alexander II to "order to burn all the artist's military paintings, as having the most pernicious influence." And for over thirty years state museums Russia did not acquire a single canvas of this "scandalous" artist.
The horror of war depicted in detail, symbolizing death and devastation, contrary to the wills of the master, will forever remain only a brilliant canvas of the great pacifist artist. The idea itself is transparent, but not heard. And how many wars could be prevented through art, through the canvases of only one Vereshchagin. But the mighty of the world this, modern conquerors, stringing their idea of a world without war, you will not meet in the Tretyakov Gallery.
“Some spread the idea of peace with their fascinating word, others put forward various arguments in its defense - religious, political, economic, and I preach the same through colors,” said this stern, courageous and fearless man.
History of "Apotheosis"
Initially, the canvas was called "The Triumph of Tamerlane." The idea was associated with Tamerlane, whose troops left behind such pyramids of skulls, but the picture is not of a specific historical nature.
According to history, once the women of Baghdad and Damascus turned to Tamerlane, who complained about their husbands, mired in sins and depravity. Then he ordered each warrior from his 200,000-strong army to bring a severed head of lecherous husbands. After the order was executed, seven pyramids of heads were laid out.
According to another version, the painting was created by Vereshchagin under the impression of a story about how the ruler of Kashgar, Valikhantor, executed a European traveler and ordered his head to be placed on top of a pyramid made of the skulls of other executed people.
In 1867, Vereshchagin left for Turkestan, where he was an ensign under the Governor-General K.P. Kaufman. Russia then conquered these lands, and Vereshchagin had seen enough of death and corpses, which aroused compassion and philanthropy in him. Here the famous "Turkestan series" appeared, where the battle painter depicted not only fighting, but also the nature and scenes of life in Central Asia. And after a trip to Western China in 1869, where the troops of the Bogdykhan ruthlessly pacified the uprising of the local Dungans and Uighurs, the painting “The Apotheosis of War” appeared.
Inspired by the horror of war
The artist did not admire his paintings at all. His work is tragic because O they are told, but not by the way it is told. With a thirst for a scientist, researcher, historian, war reporter, and only then an artist, he penetrated into the very heart of military operations. He was not just an observer, but a participant in the battles, being a courageous example of what a real military reporter should be - a battle-player:
“To fulfill the goal that I set myself, namely: it is impossible to give society a picture of a real, genuine war, looking at the battle through binoculars from a beautiful distance, but you need to feel and do everything yourself, participate in attacks, assaults, victories, defeats, experience hunger, cold, sickness, wounds... One should not be afraid to sacrifice one's blood, one's meat - otherwise my pictures will be "not right".
“Mortally Wounded” 1873. On the frame are the author's texts - at the top: “Oh, they killed, brothers! ... killed ... oh my death has come! ... " Vereshchagin received his baptism of fire at the age of 25, in Samarkand.
In 1867, he gladly accepted the invitation of the Turkestan Governor-General, General K.P. Kaufman, to be an artist with him. Arriving in Samarkand after being taken by Russian troops on May 2, 1868, Vereshchagin withstood the heavy siege of this city by rebellious local residents with a handful of Russian soldiers. The outstanding role of Vereshchagin in this defense brought him the Order of St. George, 4th class (August 14, 1868), which he proudly wore, although he generally denied any awards:
“During the eight-day siege of the Samarkand citadel by the crowds of Bukharians, ensign Vereshchagin encouraged the garrison with a courageous example. When on June 3 the enemy approached the gates in great masses and, having rushed at the guns, had already managed to occupy all the huts, Ensign Vereshchagin, despite a hail of stones and murderous rifle fire, rushed with a gun in his hands and with his heroic example carried away the brave defenders of the citadel.
At the fortress wall. "Let them in." 1871, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg 
"After failure" 1868, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg The artist returned from Samarkand in a depressed mood. The chilled valor and shown heroism gave way to disappointment and emptiness. Since then, since the siege of the Samarkand citadel, ideas about life and death, about war and peace have become the all-consuming meaning of most of the artist’s works, burned through by “the deep feeling of the historian and judge of mankind.” From now on, he has something to say, if only they would hear it.
But they didn't want to hear. To see - they saw, but they did not want to hear. Despite world recognition and popularity, in Russia the artist was treated coolly, and after one of the exhibitions in St. Petersburg he was accused of anti-patriotism and sympathy for the enemy. Many pictures caused displeasure at the top. So, the President of the Academy of Arts, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich ordered to replace defiant captions to the paintings. And Emperor Alexander II, surveying the exhibition, sadly said: “All this is true, all this was so,” but did not want to see the author. Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich - the future emperor-peacemaker Alexander III, - expressed his opinion about the artist:
“His constant tendentiousness is disgusting national pride and one thing can be concluded from them: either Vereshchagin is a brute, or a completely insane person.
However, this did not prevent a month later the Imperial Academy of Arts from conferring the title of professor to Vereshchagin, which Vereshchagin refused.
Vereshchagin was not afraid of the hostility of the court. He wrote to his friend Stasov: "All this ... shows that I am on a sound, non-hypocritical road, which will be understood and appreciated in Russia."
In 1871 Vereshchagin moved to Munich. In his desire to tell the world about the real horrors of war, he met no obstacles. He is greeted with a standing ovation in Berlin, in the Crystal Palace in London, in Paris and other European cities. The exhibited canvases, emphasizing the absurdity and criminality of the war, caused a real storm of discussion, stirring up public opinion.
His popularity can be judged from the numbers: his exhibition in St. Petersburg in 1880 was visited by 240 thousand people (in 40 days), in Berlin - 140 thousand people (in 65 days), in Vienna - 110 thousand (in 28 days ). Such fame is not dreamed of by many pop stars of our time.
After good luck. 1868, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg Then Vereshchagin lived in India for almost two years, also leaving for Tibet. In the spring of 1876 the artist returns to Paris.
Having learned in the spring of 1877 about the beginning of the Russo-Turkish war, he immediately went to the active army, participated in some battles.
In June of the same year, he was seriously wounded: Vereshchagin asked to be an observer on board the destroyer "Joke", which laid mines on the Danube. During the attack on the Turkish ship, they were fired upon by the Turks and a stray bullet pierced through the thigh.
“In anticipation that we are about to go to the bottom, I stood with one foot on board; I hear a strong crack under me and a blow to the thigh, but what a blow! - exactly a butt.
The wound turned out to be serious, due to improper treatment, inflammation began, the first signs of gangrene appeared. He had to undergo an operation to open the wound, after which he quickly recovered.
Night halt of the great army. 1896-1897, State Historical Museum, Moscow 
They attack by surprise. 1871, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow The last war and the death of V. V. Vereshchagin
From 1882 to 1903 Vereshchagin travels a lot: India, Syria, Palestine, Pinega, Northern Dvina, Solovki, Crimea, Philippines, USA, Cuba, Japan, continuing to create, create, surprise.
And again humanity does not hear him. Another bloodshed is on the way. The Russo-Japanese War is the third and last in a row in his life. A fit, slender, but already gray-haired grandfather again goes to the front. The artist has only a few days to live...
V.V. Vereshchagin in Port Arthur (to the right of V.V. Vereshchagin - Commander-in-Chief A.N. Kuropatkin) The memoirs of a journalist and part-time artist Kravchenko N.I. have come down to us about the last day of Vasily Vereshchagin. :
“By Easter, I was going from Mukden to Arthur. I drove for quite a long time, something like forty hours, and when I arrived there, the train of Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich was already there, which, when leaving, I saw back in Mukden. We were obviously overtaken at night. Vasily Vasilyevich came from Russia on this train, and lived in it when the train was in Mukden.
In Arthur they told me that "Vereshchagin has arrived." Then, they say, he often visited Admiral Makarov on the Petropavlovsk as an old good friend, as a comrade-in-arms.
The last time I saw Vasily Vasilyevich was on March 30th. Sitting in the Saratov restaurant, I had breakfast and looked through the windows at the street ...
- Gentlemen, Vereshchagin is coming! someone shouted.
And almost instantly all eyes turned to the slender, light figure of V.V., in a blue jacket pair, passing by with quick steps. His beautiful white beard shone silver under the rays of the hot sun. On his head was a sheepskin hat.
He went straight to mailbox; one could see how he lowered a large package into it, looked into the hole, and then, with the same measured, calm step, walked back to the station.
As it turned out, it was one of the artist's letters to Emperor Nicholas II. But this became known much later. Vereshchagin, in his letters, is most afraid that the tsar would not take it into his head to "have mercy" on Japan and conclude peace with her, "without punishing her completely." To bring Japan to "humility", to wash away the "insult to the tsar" inflicted by her - this, in his opinion, is required by Russian prestige in Asia. He bombarded the king with advice on the immediate construction of cruisers, bridges, sending long-range guns to Port Arthur, sending troops to the borders of India, etc. and so on. How the tsar reacted to the military advice of his civilian correspondent is unknown: there are no marks on the surviving original letters. According to historians, these letters clearly traced not the pacifist moods of the aged patriot artist, but rather the tsar's call for rigidity and steadfastness.
Memories of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich:
Admiral Stepan Osipovich Makarov Cloudy morning March 31st. At night, our destroyer Terrible died in an unequal struggle. This sad news was conveyed to us by the returned "Bayan", which, under heavy fire, managed to save only five from the "Terrible" team. Makarov could not come to terms with the idea that there, at the site of the death of the Terrible, there could still be a few people from the destroyer's team, helplessly struggling with death. He wanted to see for himself, hoping even with a fight, but to save his own ... and "Bayan" was ordered to go forward to indicate the place of death of the "Terrible". Our squadron began to leave the harbor, and "Petropavlovsk", to which I switched with the headquarters of Admiral Makarov from the "Diana", already about 7 o'clock. morning went to the outer raid; the rest of the battleships were somewhat delayed in the inner roadstead.
The entire headquarters of the admiral was on the bridge.
Soon "Bayan" signaled that he noticed the enemy, who, a little later, opened fire on "Bayan".
Admiral Makarov decided to move forward, and our detachment began to respond to enemy fire. As we approached, the Japanese turned and began to quickly withdraw. A little later, another enemy squadron appeared on the horizon. Seeing the significantly superior enemy forces in front of him, Admiral Makarov decided to turn back in order to be closer to the coastal batteries. We turned and walked at a big speed towards Arthur. The enemy stopped in some indecision. Being already under the protection of coastal batteries, "Petropavlovsk" slowed down, and the team was released to dine; The officers began to disperse little by little. The following remained on the bridge: Admiral Makarov, the commander of the Petropavlovsk, Captain 1st Rank Yakovlev, Rear Admiral Mollas, Lieutenant Wolf, artist Vereshchagin and myself.
I stood with Vereshchagin right side bridge. Vereshchagin made sketches from the Japanese squadron and, talking about his participation in many campaigns, said with great confidence that he was deeply convinced that where he was, nothing could happen there.
Suddenly, there was an explosion of incredible force ... The battleship shuddered, and a jet of hot, suffocating gas burned my face with terrible force. The air was filled with a heavy, acrid smell, it seemed to me - the smell of our gunpowder. Seeing that the battleship was rapidly listing to starboard, I instantly ran to the left side ... On the way, I had to jump over the corpse of Admiral Mollas, who lay with a bloody head next to the corpses of two signalmen. Jumping over the handrails, I jumped onto the forward 12″ tower. I clearly saw and realized that our cellars had exploded, that the battleship was dying ... The entire starboard side was already in breakers, the water was flooding the battleship with a huge wave with noise ... and the Petropavlovsk, moving forward, quickly plunged nose into the depths of the sea.
At first, I had a desire to jump from the tower to the deck, but, realizing that I could break my legs in this way, I quickly lowered myself on my hands, holding on to the upper edge of the tower, and threw myself into the water ... "
On that day, the cousin of Nicholas II, Prince Kirill, and about 80 other people were saved. The rest - more than 650 people are still considered missing.
The death of "Petropavlovsk" had an extremely negative impact on the combat activities of the Pacific squadron. This tragedy shocked not only Russia, but the whole world. Indeed, along with the death of the talented leader and organizer of the defense of Port Arthur, Vice Admiral S. O. Makarov, one of the the greatest artists Russian Empire, adamantly celebrating life beyond war and world peace.
Officers and crew of the battleship Petropavlovsk in July 1904 Facts about Vasily Vereshchagin
In America, he was offered honorary citizenship and dreamed that he would become the founder of the American school of painting.
With his first wife, Vereshchagin undertook an ascent to the Himalayas. They then climbed very high without any equipment, the escorts fell behind, and the young couple had to arrange a cold sleepover, they almost died. The British, by the way, were very frightened of this Vereshchagin journey. They believed that he, as a scout, sketches military paths. The newspapers then wrote that Vereshchagin was paving the way for Russian bayonets with a brush.
In France, Vereshchagin met the battle painter Meissonier. He talked about the work on the painting "Napoleon in 1814". The artist, in order to paint from life the war-torn road, covered a special platform with a layer of clay, drove a fake cannon on wheels along it several times, made horseshoe footprints with a horseshoe, sprinkled everything with flour and salt to create the impression of shiny snow. “And how do you solve such problems, Monsieur Vereshchagin?” - he asked. “I don’t have such problems,” Vereshchagin answered. “In Russia, in peacetime, it is enough to take any road, and it will turn out to be pitted and impassable, as after a battle.”
Before Moscow in anticipation of the deputation of the boyars. 1891-1892, State Historical Museum, Moscow In everyday life, Vereshchagin was a difficult person. Everything in the house was subject to his schedule. At 5-6 o'clock in the morning the artist was already in the studio. No one was allowed to enter there - a tray with breakfast was pushed through the ajar door. If the cymbals clinked, he immediately broke down. He had a fantastic work ethic. There was gossip that slaves were sitting in Vereshchagin's cellars and painting for him.
He was an idealist both in life and in work. He did not lie himself and criticized others for it. Vereshchagin writes about Ivanov’s painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People”: “How can one paint Palestine while sitting in Italy, without seeing this sun, this haze reflected from the earth? We all know that John the Baptist did not wash, cut his hair, did not comb his beard for 30 years. And we see a handsome man with washed curls, with aristocratic fingers ... "
For excessive realism, for the fact that Vereshchagin portrayed Jesus Christ as a historical character, our Church banned a series of his gospel works from being imported into Russia. And the Archbishop of Vienna cursed the artist and forbade the inhabitants of Vienna to go to his exhibition. But that only sparked interest. When Vereshchagin showed these paintings in America, the impresario drew up the documents in such a way that the entire series became his own. In 2007, one of the paintings - "Wailing Wall" - was sold at auction for $ 3 million 624 thousand.
A document drawn up in bad faith, according to which all rights to rare canvases Vereshchagin went to the rogue impresario, who organized his exhibition in America, has not yet been challenged by his historical homeland!
Defeated. memorial service. 1878-1879, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow The artist Metelitsa was supposed to sail on that battleship. He is ill. And Makarov, an old friend in the cadet corps, called Vereshchagin to the campaign. The blown up ship sank to the bottom in 2 minutes.
There are no remains of the artist, there is no monument at the place of his death either. By an evil irony of fate, the graves of all Vereshchagin's relatives also disappeared under the water of the Rybinsk reservoir when the land flooding program was adopted.
Napoleon and Marshal Lauriston ("Peace at all costs!"). 1899-1900, State Historical Museum, Moscow The hero of the film "White Sun of the Desert" Pavel Vereshchagin at the end of the film leads a longboat, which explodes. However, there is no information about whether the customs officer received such a surname from the directors and screenwriters of the film on purpose, or is it just a coincidence.
For a long time, the artist hatched the idea to paint a large cycle of paintings dedicated to the Patriotic War of 1812, for which he studied archival materials and visited battlefields. “I had one goal,” he wrote, “to show in the paintings of the twelfth year the great national spirit of the Russian people, their selflessness and heroism…”. So, in memory of this event, some of the most famous paintings Vereshchagin: "Napoleon and Marshal Lauriston", "In front of Moscow in anticipation of the deputation of the boyars", "Napoleon I on the Borodino Heights", etc.
Napoleon I on the Borodino Heights. 1897, State Historical Museum, Moscow The hero of Dreiser's novel "Genius", the artist Eugene, was strongly influenced by Vereshchagin. "In all his later life Vereshchagin's name continued to serve as a great stimulus to his imagination. If it's worth being an artist, it's the only one."
V. V. Vereshchagin wrote about twenty books: “Essays on a journey to the Himalayas”, “On the Northern Dvina. On Wooden Churches”, “Dukhobors and Molokans in Transcaucasia”, “At War in Asia and Europe”, “Writer”, articles “Realism” and “On Progress in Art”.
Rich Kyrgyz hunter with a falcon. 1871, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow Upon learning of the death of Vereshchagin, Saint-Petersburg Vedomosti was one of the first to publish a short appeal:
“The whole world shuddered at the news of the tragic death of V. Vereshchagin, and the friends of the world say with heartache: “One of the most ardent champions of the idea of peace has gone to the grave.” Makarov mourns all of Russia; Vereshchagin mourns the whole world".
One of the last works of Vereshchagin:
Portrait of a Japanese priest, 1904 “All my life I loved the sun and wanted to paint the sun. And after I had to experience the war and say my word about it, I was glad that I could again devote myself to the sun. But the fury of war haunts me again and again.
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Introduction
Battle genre (from the French bataille - battle), a genre of fine art dedicated to the themes of war and military life. The main place in the battle genre is occupied by scenes of battles (including naval ones) and military campaigns of the present or the past. The desire to capture a particularly important or characteristic moment of the battle, and often reveal the historical meaning of military events, brings the battle genre closer to the historical genre. The scenes of everyday life of the army and navy, found in the works of the battle genre, have something in common with the genre of everyday life. Progressive trend in the development of the battle genre of the XIX-XX centuries. connected with the realistic disclosure of the social nature of wars and the role of the people in them, with the exposure of unjust aggressive wars, the glorification of national heroism in revolutionary and liberation wars, and the education of civil patriotic feelings among the people. In the 20th century, in the era of devastating world wars, the battle genre, historical and everyday genres are closely connected with works that reflect the cruelty of imperialist wars, the incalculable suffering of peoples, their readiness to fight for freedom.
Images of battles and campaigns have been known in art since ancient times (reliefs of the Ancient East, ancient Greek vase painting, reliefs on the pediments and friezes of temples, on ancient Roman triumphal arches and columns). In the Middle Ages, battles were depicted in European and Oriental book miniatures ("Front chronicle", Moscow, XVI century), sometimes on icons; images on fabrics are also known ("Carpet from Bayeux" with scenes of the conquest of England by the Norman feudal lords, about 1073-83); numerous battle scenes in the reliefs of China and Kampuchea, Indian paintings, Japanese painting. In the XV-XVI centuries, during the Renaissance in Italy, images of battles were created by Paolo Uccello, Piero della Francesca. The battle scenes received heroic generalization and great ideological content in the cardboards for frescoes by Leonardo da Vinci ("Battle of Anghiari", 1503-06), who showed the fierce fierceness of the battle, and Michelangelo ("Battle of Kashin", 1504-06), who emphasized heroic readiness warriors to fight. Titian (the so-called "Battle of Cadore", 1537-38) introduced a real environment into the battle scene, and Tintoretto - innumerable masses of warriors ("Battle of Dawn", about 1585). In the formation of the battle genre in the 17th century. an important role was played by the sharp exposure of the robbery and cruelty of soldiers in the etchings of the Frenchman J. Callot, the deep disclosure of the socio-historical significance and ethical meaning of military events by the Spaniard D. Velazquez ("Surrender of Breda", 1634), the dynamics and drama of the battle paintings by the Fleming P.P. Rubens. Later, professional battle painters stand out (A.F. van der Meulen in France), types of conditionally allegorical composition are formed, exalting the commander, presented against the background of the battle (Ch. Lebrun in France), a small battle picture with a spectacular image of cavalry skirmishes, episodes of military everyday life (F. Wauerman in Holland) and scenes of naval battles (V. van de Velde in Holland). In the XVIII century. in connection with the war for independence, works of the battle genre appeared in American painting(B. West, J. S. Copley, J. Trumbull), the Russian patriotic battle genre was born - the paintings "Battle of Kulikovo" and "The Battle of Poltava", attributed to I. N. Nikitin, engravings by A. F. Zubov, mosaics by the workshop of M V. Lomonosov "Poltava battle" (1762-64), battle-historical compositions by G. I. Ugryumov, watercolors by M. M. Ivanov. The Great French Revolution (1789-94) and the Napoleonic Wars were reflected in the work of many artists - A. Gro (who went from a passion for the romance of revolutionary wars to the exaltation of Napoleon I), T. Gericault (who created the heroic-romantic images of the Napoleonic epic), F. Goya (who showed the drama of the struggle of the Spanish people with the French invaders). Historicism and the freedom-loving pathos of romanticism were vividly expressed in E. Delacroix's battle-historical paintings, inspired by the events of the July Revolution of 1830 in France. The national liberation movements in Europe inspired the romantic battle compositions of P. Michalovsky and A. Orlovsky in Poland, G. Wappers in Belgium, and later J. Matejko in Poland, M. Alyosha, J. Cermak in the Czech Republic, and others. In France in official battle painting (O. Vernet), false romantic effects were combined with external plausibility. Russian academic battle painting from traditionally conditional compositions with a commander in the center went to a greater documentary accuracy of the overall picture of the battle and genre details (A.I. Sauerweid, B.P. Villevalde, A.E. Kotzebue). Outside the academic tradition of the battle genre were I. I. Terebenev’s popular prints dedicated to the Patriotic War of 1812, “Cossack scenes” in Orlovsky’s lithographs, drawings by P. A. Fedotov, G. G. Gagarin, M. Yu. Lermontov, lithographs by V. F. Timma.
The development of realism in the second half of the XIX - early XX centuries. led to the strengthening of landscape, genre, sometimes psychological principles in the battle genre, attention to the actions, experiences, life of ordinary soldiers (A. Menzel in Germany, J. Fattori in Italy, W. Homer in the USA, M. Gerymsky in Poland, N. Grigorescu in Romania, Ya. Veshin in Bulgaria). A realistic depiction of the episodes of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 was given by the Frenchmen E. Detail and A. Neuville. In Russia, the art of maritime battle painting flourished (I. K. Aivazovsky, A. P. Bogolyubov), battle-everyday painting appeared (P. O. Kovalevsky, V. D. Polenov). With merciless truthfulness, V.V. Vereshchagin showed the harsh everyday life of the war, denouncing militarism and capturing the courage and suffering of the people. Realism and the rejection of conventional schemes are also inherent in the battle genre of the Wanderers - I. M. Pryanishnikov, A. D. Kivshenko, V. I. Surikov, who created a monumental epic of the military exploits of the people, V. M. Vasnetsov, who was inspired by the ancient Russian epic. The greatest master of the battle panorama was F. A. Rubo. In the XX century. social and national liberation revolutions, unprecedented destructive wars radically changed the battle genre, expanding its boundaries and artistic meaning. Many works of the battle genre raised historical, philosophical and social issues, problems of peace and war, fascism and war, war and human society and others. In the countries of the fascist dictatorship, brute force and cruelty were glorified in soulless, false-monumental forms.
In contrast to the apology of militarism, the Belgian F. Maserel, German artists K. Kollwitz and O. Dix, Englishman F. Brangvin, Mexican J.C. Orozco, French painter P. Picasso, Japanese painters Maruki Iri and Maruki Toshiko and others, protesting against fascism, imperialist wars, cruel inhumanity, created vividly emotional, symbolic images of the people's tragedy.
In Soviet art, the battle genre received a very wide development, expressing the ideas of protecting the socialist fatherland, the unity of the army and the people, revealing the class nature of wars. Soviet battle painters brought to the fore the image of the Soviet patriot warrior, his stamina and courage, love for the Motherland and the will to win.
The Soviet battle genre was formed in the graphics of the period of the Civil War of 1918-20, and then in the paintings of M. B. Grekov, M. I. Avilov, F. S. Bogorodsky, P. M. Shukhmin, K. S. Petrov-Vodkin, A A. Deineka, G. K. Savitsky, N. S. Samokish, R. R. Frents; he experienced a new upsurge during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45 and in the post-war years - in posters and "TASS Windows", front-line graphics, graphic cycles by D. A. Shmarinov, A. F. Pakhomov, B. I. Prorokov and others. , paintings by Deineka, Kukryniksy, members of the Studio of military artists named after M. B. Grekov (P. A. Krivonogov, B. M. Nemensky and others), in sculpture by Y. Y. Mikenas, E. V. Vuchetich, M. K Anikushina, A. P. Kibalnikova, V. E. Tsigalya and others.
In the art of the countries of socialism and in the progressive art of the capitalist countries, works of the battle genre are devoted to the depiction of anti-fascist and revolutionary battles, major events national history(K. Dunikovsky in Poland, J. Andreevich-Kun, G. A. Kos and P. Lubarda in Yugoslavia, J. Salim in Iraq), the history of the liberation struggle of peoples (M. Lingner in the GDR, R. Guttuso in Italy, D . Siqueiros in Mexico).
vereshchagin artist battle war
Main part
Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin (1842-1904) - an outstanding Russian battle painter, who gained world fame during his lifetime.
Vasily Vereshchagin was the author of cycles of paintings that truthfully and with deep drama depicted the wars waged by Russia, captured the brutal everyday life of the war, the severity and heroism of military affairs. Vasily Vereshchagin created paintings of the battle cycle on the themes of the Patriotic War of 1812, the Turkestan campaign and the war in the Balkans. In hundreds of genre, landscape paintings, Vereshchagin reflected his impressions of traveling through the countries of the East. Traveling a lot, the artist mastered the genre of documentary-ethnographic painting.
Vasily Vereshchagin is one of the relatively few Russian artists of the second half of the 19th century who achieved world fame during their lifetime. His exhibitions have been held in Western Europe and America. Only in the last ten years of his life he had more than thirty solo exhibitions, half of them abroad. Often his exhibitions were banned, they were often accompanied by scandals, in the press Vereshchagin was either scolded or called a genius. Both the Russian provinces and European capitals were equally interested in his work.
Vereshchagin was more attentive than other Russian artists to exhibiting his paintings, introducing a lot of new things to this area: at his exhibitions, exotic household items and weapons, collections of minerals and stuffed animals could be shown next to his paintings, music sounded - piano, organ, harmonium. Indeed, exhibitions were, perhaps, the true medium for the existence of his paintings, although, of course, they later ended up in museum collections. But not the collection of an art lover, not the walls of a rich salon, as it could be in the 18th - early 19th centuries, were their true haven, but a public review, a meeting with a large number of spectators, an active influence on the minds and hearts of the "masses". The most important feature of the painting of the 19th century - the desire for the relevance of the plot, for the journalistic sharpness of the artist's position - appeared in Vereshchagin almost in its extreme form. The topicality of the plot was for him one of the main criteria for creativity. The artist saw his task in demonstrating various negative phenomena in the life of mankind that impede progress: the horrors of war, injustice, obsolete morals. The artistic value of a picture is thus necessary for the value of the evidence contained in it, but creativity itself is subject to a necessity that goes beyond the scope of art itself. The desire to surpass purely artistic tasks is also an essential feature of Russian art of this time. And in this, as well as in the enlightening pathos of his work, Vereshchagin is the most characteristic figure of Russian painting of the second half of the 19th century.
However, Vereshchagin remained a figure standing apart in Russian art - primarily due to the fact that he never joined the Wanderers. He repeatedly motivated his refusal by the fact that his paintings should "say something", while other canvases will only divert attention from them, "... I developed my technique, I have a lot of interesting things to say and accustomed society to the fact that in my paintings there is no lie and falsehood; people will always come to see me - why do I need company? - not without pride, he wrote to V.V. Stasov.
The biography of Vereshchagin from its eventual side is quite picturesque. He was born into a poor landowner's family; at the insistence of his parents, he graduated from the St. Petersburg Naval Cadet Corps. Having no desire to become an officer, Vereshchagin, being an extremely purposeful and proud person from childhood, graduates from the corps as the first student, despite the fact that since that time he has been seriously engaged in drawing. Having resigned, he studied at the Academy of Arts for three years, but then left it, marking this fact by burning a cardboard approved by his superiors on a theme from ancient mythology. In the future, Vereshchagin will burn his works more than once - this will become for him one of the forms of protest., Upholding his right to independence. Dropping out of the Academy. The artist goes to the Caucasus. where he fills three thick albums with watercolors and drawings, then to Paris. There he has been studying at the Jerome Academy for three years. By the end of the sixties, he was already a fully formed artist.
Vereshchagin traveled a lot, participated in many wars, his fate is almost adventurous. “Give society a picture of a real, genuine war. - It’s impossible to look at the battle through binoculars from a beautiful distance, but you need to feel and do everything yourself, participate in attacks, assaults, victories, defeats, experience hunger, cold, illness, wounds ... One must not be afraid to sacrifice one's blood, one's meat, otherwise the pictures will be "not right," the artist wrote. For the first time, he participated in hostilities in 1867-70, when, as a volunteer, he was seconded to the Russian army, standing on the Russian-Chinese border in Turkestan. Participating in battles, Vereshchagin showed extraordinary courage and determination, "on all sorties he was ahead," as contemporaries say, he was often close to death. There is a known episode when he alone, with a saber and a revolver in his hands, fought from a whole detachment of steppe dwellers, which was later reflected in the pictures "Attacked by surprise" and "Surrounded - pursued". The St. George Cross for personal courage - and this was the only award that he did not refuse in his entire life.
According to Turkestan impressions, already later, during the years of his stay in Munich, Vereshchagin created a series of paintings. Along with them, there are etudes, which are distinguished by almost the same measure of completeness. Vereshchagin is characterized by work in series, each of which seemed to him in the form of a kind of "epic poem". Pictures were often created by him as a pair - "After luck (Winners)" and "After failure (Defeated)", "At the fortress wall. Let them enter" and "At the fortress wall. Entered." All this changed the traditional ideas about the picture, as well as the fact that Vereshchagin's canvases were often accompanied by inscriptions on the frame, explaining and commenting on the content of the picture. Thus, the central item of the Turkestan series - "The Apotheosis of War" (1871) - is endowed with the text: "Dedicated to all the great conquerors, past, present and future." This gives the picture a pathos that goes beyond the description of a specific historical fact (initially, the picture was supposed to be called "The Apotheosis of Tamerlane") and turns it into an allegorical accusation of war in general.
Vereshchagin, therefore, chose war as a subject of depiction precisely because he fought war as a manifestation of inhumanity, unnaturalness, and evil. The position of the educator manifests itself in this quite consistently and convincingly. Vereshchagin himself was a man of courage and courage. Taking part in hostilities, he more than once performed feats, bold sorties, for which he received awards. His courage also extended to creativity, manifesting itself in a frank display of the disasters of war, the severity of a soldier's life. For this, Vereshchagin was persecuted, subjected to public condemnation, and forced to destroy his works. Nevertheless, the artist, as a true enlightener, courageously continued his work, neglecting the danger. He owned the true truth of the document. Vereshchagin did not invent a single detail from his head, not a single military situation reproduced by him in the picture was invented. Everything was checked by him down to the smallest detail, tested on own experience. He carried a living, reliable evidence of the war. And that was the key to his success.
The very task of anti-war journalistic performance with the help of painting determined the pictorial system that Vereshchagin developed and the method of work that he used. They were also the reason why Vereshchagin differed from other realist artists of the second half of XIX century, which predetermined the independence of his performances outside of traveling exhibitions. Vereshchagin worked on a whole series of paintings and exhibited the series at exhibitions. Work on each series stretched sometimes for several years. And sometimes it was postponed due to the fact that it was interrupted by a war that had begun somewhere. Usually the artist immediately went to the theater of military operations and, when possible, took part in the war himself (this was the case in Central Asia in the late 60s and on the Russian-Turkish front in 1876-1877). Having collected extensive etude material directly during the war, he retired to his studio (besides Russia, Vereshchagin worked in Munich and Paris) and painted pictures and created series. After finishing work, he exhibited his paintings both in Russia and abroad, he himself accompanied his exhibitions around the world, explaining the principles of his work and the meaning of his works. At the first such large exhibition dedicated to Turkestan, the artist demonstrated not only paintings and sketches, but also household items, weapons of local peoples. Thus, the exhibition acquired an ethnographic and historical connotation. For one of the later exhibitions dedicated to the Patriotic War of 1812, the artist wrote a special historical essay, explaining his point of view on this war, its nature, driving forces etc. All these documents and display principles are completely subordinate to the implementation of the educational tasks set by the artist.
It is indicative that the large series, which consisted of several tens or even hundreds of exhibits, contained "within themselves" small series. Such small series was a story about a clash between Russian soldiers and Turkestan troops, consisting of a good dozen canvases, or a "triptych" "Everything is calm on Shipka" from a series of works dedicated to the Russian-Turkish war. Small series were a kind of "stories with a sequel." None of the Wanderers used this technique. Vereshchagin, as it were, lacked one picture. In one picture, he could not put a long and complex story about some military event in its plot. By expanding the time frame, this technique freed Vereshchagin from the need to concentrate both action and action in one situation. psychological condition characters. This was another reason for the freedom of the artist from psychologism, which Kramskoy complained about.
Vereshchagin's activities unfolded very intensively over four decades. The artist was born in Cherepovets into a noble family in 1842, and died in 1904 during the Russo-Japanese war in Port Arthur in the explosion of the battleship Petropavlovsk - he died along with Admiral Makarov. Vereshchagin entered the St. Petersburg Academy in 1860, against the wishes of his parents. Prior to that, he studied in the cadet corps. After studying for several years at the academy with A.E. Beideman, Vereshchagin left her and went to Paris on his own, where he studied at the academy, and also took lessons from the famous academic painter Jerome. Since the mid-60s, Vereshchagin's independent activity began. Even before the Turkestan campaign, he managed to make two trips to the Caucasus and create several works typical of the 60s. The most significant of them are the drawing "Religious Procession at the Feast of Maharem in Shusha" (1865) and sketches and sketches for the painting "Barge Haulers" (mid-60s). The last of the two themes is quite common in Russian art and literature. Vereshchagin's sketches open up a whole series of works created even before Repin's famous "Barge Haulers on the Volga". This series consists of paintings by P.O. Kovalevsky "Tow line on the Izhora River" (1868) and A.K. Savrasov "Barge haulers on the Volga" (1871). Vereshchagin, as it were, sets the tone for this line. The plot of "Barge haulers" was chosen in all these cases for the sake of critical goals. Artists denounced the fact of a crime against people who were likened to working cattle. In Vereshchagin, this tendency is expressed, perhaps, to a greater extent than in his contemporaries. His barge haulers are exhausted, exhausted; they can barely move their legs. The same enlightening pathos fills the above-mentioned drawing depicting a religious procession of fanatics. The denunciation of the darkness of the people, their religious prejudices is adjacent to criticism social injustices. Vereshchagin, like any other member of the sixties, used any pretext for denunciation. In The Religious Procession, one more feature characteristic of the 60s should be singled out - ethnographicism, which gave a special color to the art of the Enlightenment decade. Genre painters in those years went to different countries or to remote corners of Russia to capture scenes of folk life. A rather large number of this kind of ethnographic works were reproduced in the "Art Sheet", published by V.F. Timm in 1851-1862. Thus, Vereshchagin is already at the beginning artistic activity managed to synthesize in his work different features of contemporary art. To realize his positions, he used the language of somewhat academicized realism generally accepted in European painting at that time. As we saw earlier, this language was the starting point for many of the sixties. But from Vereshchagin, he acquired some features in comparison with his Russian contemporaries, for the artist experienced some influence of Jerome and other French painters.
Vereshchagin's first success was associated with the Turkestan series (1868-1873), which showed the artist's mature skill. Unlike the Balkan one, this series is, as it were, divided between ethnographic and military subjects. From the first, Vereshchagin begins (for example, Opium Eaters, 1868), subordinating them to the tasks of social criticism. In the future, the artist creates several more paintings of this kind - "Sale of a slave child" (1871-1872), "Samarkand zindan" (1873). These paintings still bear noticeable traces of the sixties. But next to them - even outside the purely battle plots - there are already works that demonstrate other trends. Such works include, for example, "A rich Kyrgyz hunter with a falcon" (1871). In this one-figure composition, a new approach, characteristic of many artists of the 70s, makes itself felt - an interest in the phenomenon as such. The proud pose of a hunter holding a beautiful falcon on his raised hand, the bright brilliance of the canvas, which distinguishes it from the paintings of the 60s - more dry and stingy in color, also testify to the artist’s well-known admiration for the subject of the image. True, Vereshchagin's "protocolism", which also manifests itself in this work, fetters the artist's ability to reveal his attitude to the object. But the object itself clearly expresses its own positive connotation.
Two other paintings, testifying to the ethnographic interests of the artist, "The Doors of Tamerlane" (1872-1873) and "At the Doors of the Mosque" (1873) also belong to the works of a new type. These paintings are connected with each other by the general principles of composition and pictorial interpretation, the objects of the image. But one is written on a historical, and the other - on a modern subject. Vereshchagin managed to convey this difference by the very structure of the paintings. The first of them expressively recreates the image of medieval oriental symmetry, immobility, monumental stiffness. Two warriors dressed in magnificent clothes, their weapons - bows, arrows, shields and spears, sharp shadows falling on the floor and walls and as if nailing the figures to the door frame - everything is in a kind of numbness and testifies to strength, power, traditionality, rituality of culture. Vereshchagin's manner - careful finishing of every detail (carved door, clothes), equivalent in all parts, intense "coloring" of all objects turns out to be suitable for such historical image medieval east. In the second painting, the genre-interpreted figures of two travelers, who have come to the doors of the mosque and are resting near them, give the whole scene an everyday tone.
The basis of the Turkestan series are battle compositions, which, like the two above-mentioned works, are combined with each other: sometimes in pairs ("After success", "After failure" (both 1868), "At the fortress wall. Let them enter", "At the fortress wall . Entered" (both 1871)), and sometimes large groups. At the center of the entire Turkestan exposition was a series of paintings called "Barbarians", consistently showing the episode of the death of the soldiers of the Russian detachment, taken by surprise by the cavalry of the Emir of Bukhara. As in cinematography, Vereshchagin changes the scene several times throughout the series and the depicted observers of the scene. First, Bukhara scouts are shown, who are looking out for Russian positions, so that later they can unexpectedly attack them. In this picture, a view is given from the point of view and from the position of these Bukhara scouts, which almost coincides with the point of view of the viewer of the picture. In the following pictures, the viewer becomes the only observer - he sees the scene of an unexpected attack by the Bukhara cavalry and the defending Russian soldiers. Then - in the next scene - the pursuit of these soldiers. After that, the scene of action is transferred to the camp of the enemy: trophies are presented to the emir - the severed heads of Russian soldiers, then these heads, planted on high poles, are shown to the people near the mosque. The series ends with the painting "The Apotheosis of War" (1871-1872), in which the viewer sees a mountain of skulls that make up a whole pyramid against the backdrop of a scorched desert and an abandoned ruined city. It's like a timeless scene; it is associated with the wars and conquests of a grandiose scale that took place on the territory of Turkestan in the old days. At the same time, it is dedicated, as it is clear from the inscription of the artist himself, "to all the great conquerors, past, present and future." As you can see, Vereshchagin's series is not just a sequential story in pictures, it is rather a montage that provides for different places of action, different positions of the observer, and even a difference in time to which the scene shown belongs.
The plots chosen by Vereshchagin are extremely effective. They refer to the most acute situations, to the most "bloody" episodes, eloquently testifying to the horrors of war and the barbarity of the victors. The choice of episodes is one of the most important means by which the artist achieves the expressiveness and effectiveness of his paintings. The artist strives to use, first of all, what reality itself gives, and it is due to this that he achieves the effect.
As for the psychological characteristics of the characters, this task is narrowed down in Vereshchagin's paintings. a significant role in his paintings, the identification of the originality of figures and poses plays, which, as it were, replaces facial expressions. The artist captures poses and gestures with almost photographic accuracy. In this regard, the painting Mortally Wounded (1873), which is not included in the "Barbarians" series, but which occupied an important place in the general Turkestan exposition, is especially characteristic. Unlike most other paintings in this close-up, as if next to the viewer, a soldier is depicted, throwing a gun to the ground and pressing his hands to his chest, where an enemy bullet hit. He runs, apparently taking his last steps before dropping dead. This mechanical death run, the gesture of the hands holding the wound, is seen by the artist sharply, accurately and convincingly. We find the same techniques in the paintings of the "Barbarians" series.
The composition of the paintings in the series is not built "from the inside" by processing natural material, but is likened to the method of "cropping" nature. But this "framing" is done in such a way that in the very piece of reality, captured by the artist(even if sometimes this scene was not before his eyes), there is already a certain symmetry, or at least a general balance of parts. Indicative in this regard is the painting "Triumph" (1871-1872), where the basis of the composition is the facade of the mosque, near which people are depicted, naturally forming a figure that is in itself balanced. The same can be said about the composition of the "Apotheosis of War", where the center is accentuated, marked by a pyramid of skulls, on the sides of which a landscape unfolds, stretching into the distance. Such a compositional system resembles the itinerant one. However, in Vereshchagin, the element of naturalness is strengthened, while the Wanderers still change nature in many ways, building a composition, and not just content with the opportunity to find a composition "in the frame."
The differences between Vereshchagin and the Wanderers are also noticeable in the color interpretation of the paintings of the Turkestan series. In the 70s, Russian realistic painting parted with the chiaroscuro system and turned to the tonal system in order to soon take the path of the plein air. Vereshchagin, who accepted the experience of not only Russian, but also French painting, was perhaps the first to turn to the tasks of the tonal and plein-air system. He depicts scenes in bright sunlight, seeks to unite all colors, bringing them closer to each other and finding them in grays and yellow flowers the basis of the pictorial composition, which makes it possible to unite the pictorial canvas as a whole. However, at the same time, Vereshchagin does not reach the true open air. He is more satisfied with the external effect: he likes to cast thick shadows from objects on the ground, creating the appearance of lighting; in the distance, it rather weakens the colors, but does not modify them; the interaction of light and color is hindered by the clear contours of objects and figures. The color of objects is conveyed by the artist accurately, but to a certain extent photographically. Only a few works - such as the natural study "Kyrgyz wagons in the valley of the Chu River" (1869-1870) - are an exception to this rule. In "Kibitki", despite the fact that some details are written out in the foreground, the distances are interpreted more freely and intricately according to the picturesque proportions of blue, white-pink, and purple colors. This work testifies to the great possibilities of the artist in the field of plein air, which were not used in his further work. In 1874 Vereshchagin went to India. This trip was not related to the war. Rather, it was caused by the ethnographic interests of Vereshchagin. But the artist did not stop only at ethnographic tasks. He also created a number of historical paintings (written, however, later), interpreted in an edifying way, in which they received their further development educational intentions of the artist. The Indian cycle is thus divided into two parts. One was made up of paintings, sketches, landscapes - that is, works from nature. The other is from historical scenes composed by the artist. The first part was mainly created during his stay in India - in 1874-1876. The second one was only begun during these years, continued at the turn of the 70-80s (after the artist returned from the Balkan front), and completed after the second trip to India, which took place in 1882-1883.
It should be said right away that these historical paintings, with some exceptions, did not work out for the artist. Having set out to depict the story of "the capture of India by the British" (as the artist himself put it), Vereshchagin turned out to be too edifying and demonstrative in the historical genre. In addition, his paintings look composed, cumbersome. The only exception is a large picture - "The suppression of the Indian uprising by the British" (1884), which he already included in another series - "The Trilogy of Executions", created in the mid-80s. Vereshchagin in this picture depicted the rebellious Indian sepoys, tied with their backs to the muzzles of cannons and waiting for a shot in the back. Here again a sharp plot is chosen, a moment is found that causes the viewer to shudder and horror.
Among the natural works created in India, such sketches as "Kuli" (1875) stand out noticeably - soft in painting and deep in their interpretation of the figure and head of an Indian. In some landscapes ("The Main Temple of the Tassiding Monastery", 1875), the artist continued the plein-air tradition of such works as "Kibitki". But in most natural works, other tendencies are felt - the desire for color richness, intensity and variegation. This trend was vividly expressed by such works as "The Mausoleum of the Taj Mahal in Agra" (1874-1876) and "The Horseman in Jaipur" (1881-1882). In the Taj Mahal, the artist sharply contrasted the even blue color of the sky, almost repeated in the blue of the water, with the white and red colors of architecture. The reflection of buildings in the water almost completely preserves this contrast and only slightly softens the sharpness of the contours and the clarity of the lines that are used in the plastic characterization of architecture. The brightness of Vereshchagin does not open the way for him to the open air, but, on the contrary, moves him away from him. At the same time, one cannot deny this work the effectiveness and accuracy of the transmission of nature. As for the Horseman in Jaipur, this study, to a greater extent than any other work of the artist, reflected the influence of French salon painting.
At the end of the 70s, the time for creating a series of paintings dedicated to the Russian-Turkish war falls. Perhaps, in these works, Vereshchagin became closest to the Wanderers, who experienced their heyday in those years. The Balkan paintings no longer form extensive series, like the Turkestan ones, and the emphasis is shifted to a separate painting. Only some plots are realized in several pictures. These include the triptych "Everything is Quiet on Shipka" (1878-1879), which depicts an episode of the death of a Russian sentry soldier, gradually covered with snow. In other cases, even when combining paintings in a series, each of them looks more independent, containing in itself main point. This can be said about two canvases - "Before the attack" and "After the attack" (both 1881). There is no longer the old principle of "story with continuation." The first of the paintings shows the courage and concentration of Russian soldiers, their readiness for battle. The second demonstrates difficult fate soldier, the horrors of war. Both of them could exist separately. The same can be said about another "pair" of paintings - "Winners" (1878-1879) and "Defeated" (1877-1879). The latter is one of the best works in the series. It depicts a regimental priest performing a memorial service for the dead, whose mutilated corpses dotted the snowy field. Against the background of this field and the gray sky, two male figures are drawn. Their poses, the gray, dull landscape, its emptiness - all this creates a horrifying scene of the victims of the war, the senseless death of hundreds of people.
Compared to the paintings of the Turkestan cycle, the Balkan ones are enlarged in size. They have no catchy showiness; the colorful gamut is more modest, which is certainly due not only to the evolution of the master, but also to the nature of the Balkans. The very subject of the image contributed to the changes that brought the artist closer to the Wandering genre. Vereshchagin's paintings began in many ways to resemble the "choral" compositions of Myasoedov or Savitsky, while retaining the old documentary, truthfulness and accuracy of the depiction of the war. These features were most fully manifested in the painting "Shipka-Sheinovo. Skobelev near Shipka" (1878-1879). In the background, the artist showed a solemn minute of the parade of troops on the occasion of the victory. The soldiers throw up their hats, greeting Skobelev, who is rushing past on a white horse. The dead are depicted in the foreground - again with the same cruel truthfulness and rigorous accuracy. The bodies of the dead lie as it can only be in reality - some are crooked, others are strangely curved, others with raised arms. Singing the Russian soldier, Vereshchagin sympathizes with him with all his heart. The composition of the picture looks more thoughtfully built than in previous works. There is no complete symmetry in it, but there is a general balance of the sides.
Ways creative development brought Vereshchagin closer and closer to the historical genre. Beginning in the 1980s, the historical genre not only "equalized" its rights with the genre of everyday life, but also got the opportunity to express ideas that the genre of everyday life could not realize. The historical picture became a way for public thought to realize the historical originality of the people, the ways of Russia, and its future. This new trend manifested itself most consistently in the work of Surikov. To a lesser extent, she touched other artists, in particular Vereshchagin. Evidence of this was his "series of executions", which included the above-described "Suppression of the Indian uprising by the British", "Crucifixion by the Romans" (1887) and "Execution of conspirators in Russia" (1884-1885). The last picture is dedicated to the first of March, but at the same time, the topic that so worried Russian society, as if hidden by the "research" of the types of execution.
The last large cycle of paintings by Vereshchagin was the series "1812. Napoleon in Russia", on which he worked from the late 70s until his death. Creating this series, the artist traveled around Russia, selected models for his paintings, studied Russian people, their characters, and made numerous sketch portraits. In the series "1812" the experience of a battle-painter was combined with an interest in a historical picture. True, in these last works, Vereshchagin did not achieve noticeable success. Exaggerated monumentalism and a touch of props are felt in large-sized canvases. The series is more interesting in its concept, choice of episodes, characterization of the role of the peasant partisans than in its artistic qualities. That desire for showiness of the depicted situations, which we noted above in the Turkestan series, is absent here. But with the rejection of showiness, the expressiveness of Vereshchagin's paintings also disappears, because the place of the former, built on effects, has not been replaced by a new one, based on the psychological relationships of the characters, on the methods of plastic composition.
Conclusion
The period of the highest prosperity in the work of Vereshchagin was the 70s - the time of the creation of the Turkestan and Balkan series. At that time, those educational foundations of his worldview, which were laid in the 60s, and the new tasks of art put forward by the historical and artistic development Russia. But the further Vereshchagin moved away from the 70s, the more complex, despite external success, the relationship between his work and the art of other Russian realist artists turned out to be.
Vereshchagin was outstanding artist a battle painter, I would even say one of the best of his time, and each of his works was a masterpiece, and he is one of a small number of those artists who became famous during his lifetime. And on the one hand it was good for battle painter, but on the other hand, constant persecution and criticism did not allow him to live in peace, and this artist always traveled and saw all the military events with his own eyes, and it seems to me that this is why his works were so realistic, because their author experienced everything on himself and only after that he painted.
- ·1. Lebedev A. K. V. V. Vereshchagin. Life and art. M., 1972.
- 2. Lebedev A. K. V. V. Vereshchagin. Life and art. - M., 1958.
- 3. Vereshchagin VV Memoirs of the artist's son. - L .: Artist of the RSFSR, 1978
- ·4. Lebedev A. K., Solodovnikov A. V. Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin. - L .: Artist of the RSFSR, 1987
- 6. List of illustrations
Apotheosis of war. 1871<#"176" src="doc_zip2.jpg" />
Before the attack. Under Plevna. 1881 V.V.Vereshchagin
After failure. 1868<#"justify">
In conquered Moscow (Arsonists or Execution in the Kremlin). 1897-1898<#"164" src="doc_zip5.jpg" />
Night halt of the great army. 1896-1897<#"182" src="doc_zip6.jpg" />
With a weapon in hand - shoot. 1887-1895
Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin is one of the largest Russian realist painters. His works gained nationwide fame, and in the world of art he was firmly entrenched in the glory of an outstanding battle painter. However, the range of creativity of Vasily Vasilyevich was much wider than the battle theme. The artist significantly enriched the historical, everyday, portrait and landscape painting of his era. For contemporaries, Vereshchagin was not only a famous artist, but also a desperate revolutionary, breaking with generally accepted canons both in creativity and in life. “Vereshchagin is not just a painter, he is something more,” wrote the art critic, the ideological leader of the Wanderers Ivan Kramskoy. “Despite the interest of his paintings, the author himself is a hundred times more instructive.”
Vasily Vasilyevich was born in Cherepovets on October 14, 1842 in the family of a landowner. He spent the first eight years of his life on his father's estate near the village of Pertovka. The large family of the future artist lived at the expense of corvee and dues of serfs. And although Vereshchagin's parents were known among the landowners as relatively humane people, Vasily himself often observed scenes of oppression of serfs and lordly arbitrariness. The impressionable boy painfully perceived the humiliation of people and the violation of human dignity.
At the age of eight, Vasily's parents sent Vasily to the Alexander Cadet Corps for juveniles. The order in the educational institution during the time of Nicholas I was distinguished by rough drill, cane discipline, despotism and callousness, which did not contribute to the cadets' desire for service. It was during the years of study that the main character traits of Vereshchagin were discovered. He reacted sharply to any injustice or humiliation of a person. The class arrogance and arrogance of the cadets, the goodwill towards students from the noble families of the leaders of the corps caused Vereshchagin a feeling of furious indignation.
After graduating from the Alexander Cadet Corps, Vasily entered the Naval Corps in St. Petersburg. It should be noted that during the entire time of study, Vereshchagin was among the best pupils, and he graduated from the educational institution by the number of points in first place. Here the growing will of the future artist was expressed, in the struggle for superiority he had to sacrifice rest and entertainment, regularly lack sleep. However, the acquired knowledge, especially fluency in French, German and English, in subsequent years were very useful to him.
In 1860, Vasily Vasilyevich was promoted to midshipmen. Before him opened brilliant career naval officer. However, while still studying at the Marine Corps, Vereshchagin firmly decided to become an artist. He had a desire to draw from childhood, since 1858 he already regularly attended the school of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. Vereshchagin's desire to leave the service ran into serious difficulties. First, his parents revolted against this act in the strongest possible way. The mother said that painting was humiliating for a representative of an old noble family, and the father even promised to refuse his son financial assistance. And secondly, the naval department did not want to part with one of the most capable graduates of the Naval Corps. Contrary to the will of his parents and superiors, Vasily Vasilyevich left military career, enrolling in 1860 at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.
V.V.Vereshchagin - student of the Academy of Arts 1860
The academic leadership immediately allocated a much-needed cash subsidy to Vereshchagin, and he, with all his spiritual ardor and diligence, devoted himself to his beloved work. Already in the first years of his studies, Vasily showed remarkable success, his drawings regularly received promotions and awards. However, the longer Vereshchagin studied at the Academy, the more dissatisfaction with local "studies" matured in him. The dominant system of education was based on the traditions of classicism, which included the obligatory idealization of nature. Students in their works were supposed to refer to the themes of antiquity, religion and mythology. Even the figures and events of national history had to be depicted in an antique way. Meanwhile, the situation in Russia at that time was distinguished by the exceptional acuteness of socio-political life. The crisis of the feudal system escalated, a revolutionary situation arose. The autocracy was forced to prepare and implement a peasant reform. Many vivid paintings, poems, dramatic works appeared in the country, exposing the unbearable living conditions of the urban poor and peasants. However, education at the Academy of Arts continued to be cut off from the progressive views of the era, which caused discontent among some members of the artistic youth, including Vereshchagin.
Vasily Vereshchagin at the end of the Naval Cadet Corps. Photos of 1859 - 1860s
The democratic views of Vasily Vasilyevich, his commitment to realism grew stronger and developed every day. The artist's educational sketch on the theme of Homer's Odyssey received praise from the Academy Council, but the author himself was completely disillusioned with the teaching system. He decided to put an end to classicism forever, in connection with which he cut and burned the sketch. Vereshchagin left the educational institution in the middle of 1863, shortly before the famous "revolt of the fourteen", who created an independent artel of artists.
Vasily Vereshchagin during the first trip to the Caucasus
The young painter went to the Caucasus, eager to paint national images, scenes of folk life and southern nature, unusual for his eyes. By the Georgian Military Highway, Vasily Vasilyevich reached Tiflis, where he lived for more than a year. He earned a living by giving drawing lessons, and devoted all his free hours to studying the peoples of Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, trying to capture everything interesting and characteristic with sketches. A true reflection of real life, the issuance of a “sentence” to it - this is what Vasily Vasilyevich began to see the meaning and purpose of art.
In those years, Vereshchagin worked only with pencil and watercolor, he had neither experience nor knowledge to use oil paints. In 1864, Vereshchagin's uncle died, the artist received a large inheritance and decided to continue his education. To do this, he went to France and entered the Paris Academy of Fine Arts, starting to train with the famous artist Jean-Leon Gerome. Diligence and enthusiasm allowed Vasily Vasilyevich to achieve considerable success in a short time. The Frenchman highly appreciated the talents of the new student, who, nevertheless, did not want to unquestioningly obey his instructions. Jerome offered endless sketches of antiques, advised to copy the paintings of the classics of painting. In fact, the techniques of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts were also cultivated here. Vereshchagin, on the other hand, attached importance only to work from nature. In the spring of 1865 he returned to the Caucasus. The artist recalled: “From Paris I escaped as if from a dungeon, with some frenzy began to draw in the wild.” Within six months, the young artist visited many places in the Caucasus, he showed particular interest in the dramatic stories of folk life.
The drawings of this period depict the savagery of local religious customs, denounce religious fanaticism, using the ignorance and darkness of the people.
At the end of 1865, Vereshchagin visited St. Petersburg, and then again went to Paris, where he again began to study with zeal. From his travels in the Caucasus, he brought a huge amount pencil drawings, which he showed to Jérôme and Alexandre Bida, another French painter who took part in his training. Exotic and original paintings from the life of peoples little known in Europe made a favorable impression on skilled artists. However, this was not enough for Vasily Vasilyevich, he wanted to present his work to a mass audience.
Throughout the winter of 1865-1866, Vasily Vasilyevich continued to work hard at the Paris Academy. For fifteen or sixteen hours, the artist's working day lasted without rest and walks, without attending concerts and theaters. The technique of his drawing became more perfect and confident. He also mastered painting, coming to grips with work with paints. Vereshchagin's official training ended in the spring of 1866, the artist left the Academy and returned to Russia.
Vasily Vasilyevich spent the summer of 1866 in the estate of his deceased uncle - the village of Lyubets, located in the Cherepovets district. Outwardly, the calm life of the estate, located near the Sheksna River, was disturbed by the anguished cries of the barge crowds pulling the barges of merchants. The impressionable Vereshchagin was amazed by what he saw in this place tragic pictures from the lives of ordinary people turned into draft animals. Only in our country, according to the artist, barge work has become a real disaster, acquiring a mass character. On this subject, Vereshchagin decided to paint a huge picture, for which oil paints made sketches of barge haulers, created sketches with a brush and pencil - several hauling teams of two hundred and fifty or three hundred people, following one after another in a train. Despite the fact that Vereshchagin’s canvas is significantly inferior to Repin’s famous painting “Barge Haulers on the Volga”, it is worth noting that Vasily Vasilyevich conceived the theme of the painting a few years before Ilya Efimovich (1870-1873). In addition, Vereshchagin, unlike Repin, tried to reveal the drama of the burlak fate not by psychological, but by epic means. A large-scale conceived work aimed at drawing public attention to one of the social ulcers of Russia at that time was not completed. The inheritance he received ended, the artist had to give all his time and energy to odd jobs. In the history of art, only sketches and expressive sketches of barge haulers, created directly from nature, remained forever.
In the middle of 1867, Vasily Vasilyevich set off on his new journey - to Turkestan. The artist wrote about the reasons that prompted him to leave the house: “I went because I wanted to find out that there is a real war, about which I heard and read a lot, near which I lived in the Caucasus.” At this time, active hostilities of the Russian army against the Bukhara Emirate began. The events that took place interested Vereshchagin not at all from the side of tactics or strategy of battles, but only as a socio-political event in which the people of each of the warring parties struggle, live and suffer. At that moment, Vasily Vasilyevich still had no anti-militarist convictions, no ideas and prevailing opinions about the war. He was invited by the commander of the Russian troops Konstantin Kaufman and served with him in the rank of ensign.
Vereshchagin used the long journey to Tashkent and countless trips around Turkestan for eighteen months to write a series of sketches and drawings showing the life of the peoples of Central Asia; local fortresses, cities and towns; historical monuments. Vasily Vasilyevich carefully studied customs, got acquainted with people, visited inns, mosques, teahouses, bazaars. In his albums there were colorful types of Tajiks, Uzbeks, Kirghiz, Kazakhs, Jews and Gypsies, as well as Persians, Afghans, Chinese and Indians who came across to him - people of different social status and age. At the same time, the artist noted the beauty of southern nature, majestic mountains, fertile steppes, stormy rivers. A series of sketches and drawings made by Vereshchagin in the late 1860s is a unique work, in fact, a visual encyclopedia of the life and life of the peoples of Central Asia in the middle of the nineteenth century. At the same time, the technique of the artist himself became more confident and impressive. Drawings have learned to convey the subtlest lighting effects and light and shade transitions, and have become distinguished by the maximum accuracy of kinship with nature. The artist's skill in working with oil paints also increased.
Samarkand, 1869
In the middle of the spring of 1868, Vereshchagin learned that the Emir of Bukhara, who was in Samarkand, had declared a “holy war” to Russia. Following the army, the artist rushed towards the enemy. Vasily Vasilyevich did not catch the battle that unfolded on May 2, 1868 on the outskirts of Samarkand, but shuddered before his tragic consequences: "Never have I seen a battlefield yet, and my heart bled." Vereshchagin stopped in Samarkand, occupied by Russian troops, and began to study the city. However, when the main forces under the command of Kaufman left Samarkand, continuing the fight against the emir, the city's garrison was attacked by numerous troops of the Shakhrisabz Khanate. The local population also rebelled, the Russian soldiers had to lock themselves in the citadel. The situation was catastrophic, the opponents outnumbered our forces by eighty times. Vereshchagin had to change his brush to a gun and join the ranks of the defenders. With amazing courage and energy, he participated in the defense of the citadel, repeatedly led the fighters into hand-to-hand combat, and participated in reconnaissance sorties. Once a bullet split the artist's gun, in another it knocked his hat off his head, in addition, in the battle he was wounded in the leg. Composure and courage created a high reputation for him among the soldiers and officers of the detachment. Russian soldiers survived, after the siege was lifted, Vereshchagin was awarded the St. George Cross of the fourth degree. Vasily Vasilyevich constantly wore it. By the way, he resolutely refused all subsequent awards.
Apotheosis of War, 1871
The defense of Samarkand tempered the will and character of Vereshchagin. The horrors of battles, the suffering and death of people, the looks of the dying, the atrocities of enemies who cut off the heads of prisoners - all this left an indelible mark on the mind of the artist, tormented and worried him. In the winter of 1868, the artist visited Paris, and then arrived in St. Petersburg. In the northern capital, Vereshchagin developed vigorous activity on the organization and holding of the Turkestan exhibition. Thanks to Kaufman's support, mineralogical, zoological and ethnographic collections from Central Asia were exhibited in the city. Here Vereshchagin first presented a number of his drawings and paintings. The exhibition had big success, the press spoke about the artist's work.
After the closing of the exhibition, Vasily Vasilyevich again went to Turkestan, this time by the Siberian routes. A trip through Siberia allowed him to see the difficult life of political exiles and convicts. In Central Asia, Vereshchagin constantly traveled, worked tirelessly. He traveled around Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, traveled along the Chinese border, visited Samarkand again, visited Kokand. During his travels, the artist repeatedly participated in battles with bandits of local sultans. And again, Vereshchagin showed extraordinary courage and courage, exposing himself to mortal danger during hand-to-hand fights.
In order to summarize the material collected in Turkestan, the artist settled in Munich at the beginning of 1871. Constant exercises in the field of painting were not in vain. Now the artist was fluent in colorful harmony, sonorous colors easily and accurately conveyed space and light and air environment. A significant part of the canvases, as before, the artist devoted to showing the life of Central Asia in the second half of the nineteenth century. The plots of other paintings were episodes of the war for the annexation of Turkestan to Russia. In these works, with incorruptible truth, the heroism of ordinary Russian fighters, the barbarism and savagery of the customs of the Bukhara Emirate are conveyed.
The famous collector and philanthropist Pavel Tretyakov, visiting Munich, visited the workshop of Vasily Vasilyevich. Vereshchagin's works made a strong impression on Tretyakov, he immediately wanted to buy them. However, Vereshchagin wanted to organize a show to the general public before selling the canvases, to test his artistic and social convictions. An exhibition of Turkestan works by Vereshchagin was opened in 1873 in London at the Crystal Palace. It was the artist's first solo exhibition. The works surprised the audience. Unusual and new in content, powerful and expressive in artistic and realistic form, which broke with the conventions of salon-academic art. The exhibition was great for the English public, but for Russian artist an unparalleled success. Magazines and newspapers published accolades.
Mortally wounded, 1873
In early 1874, Vereshchagin presented Turkestan paintings in St. Petersburg. To attract a low-income public, he set up free admission several days a week. And this exhibition was a huge success, evoking lively responses from leading figures in Russian culture. Mussorgsky, based on the plot of one of Vereshchagin's paintings, wrote the musical ballad "Forgotten", and Garshin composed a passionate poem about unknown soldiers who died in this war. Kramskoy wrote: “This is something amazing. I don’t know if there is an artist equal to him here or abroad.”
However, the tsarist dignitaries, together with the highest generals, reacted sharply negatively to the pictures, finding their content slanderous and false, discrediting the honor of the Russian army. And this was understandable - after all, until that time, battle painters depicted only the victories of the tsarist troops. It was very difficult for the generals to come to terms with the episodes of defeat shown by Vereshchagin. In addition, presenting in his paintings the historical epic of the annexation of Turkestan to Russia, the impudent artist nowhere immortalized either the reigning emperor, or at least one of his generals. Soon after the start of the exhibition, the ruling circles launched a real persecution of its organizer. Articles began to appear in the press accusing Vasily Vasilyevich of anti-patriotism and treason, of a "Turkmen" approach to events. The sale of reproductions of paintings by Vereshchagin was not allowed, even Mussorgsky's ballad was banned.
Under the influence of unfair and outrageous accusations, Vereshchagin, in a state of nervous attack, burned three of his beautiful paintings, which provoked special attacks from dignitaries. However, the conflict between him and government circles continued to intensify. He was accused of lying, presented as a troublemaker and nihilist. They recalled individual episodes of the artist's biography, for example, how he refused to serve in the navy, left the Imperial Academy of Arts without permission. The Turkestan series was generally presented as an open challenge to the centuries-old tradition of presenting military historical events.
"Attack by surprise", 1871
The atmosphere of persecution became so unbearable for Vereshchagin that he, without deciding the fate of his Turkestan paintings, left St. Petersburg before the closing of the exhibition, setting off on a long journey through India. After that, he gave the task to a trusted person to sell this series, subject to the buyer observing several mandatory conditions, such as: preservation of the paintings in their homeland, their availability to the public, and the continuity of the series. As a result, Tretyakov bought the Turkestan works, placing them in his famous gallery.
With the departure of Vasily Vasilyevich from Russia, his conflict with government circles did not fade away. A new impetus was the demonstrative refusal of Vereshchagin, who was in India, from the professorship awarded to him in 1874. Imperial Academy arts. Vereshchagin motivated his refusal by the fact that he considers all awards and titles in art unnecessary. A number of Academy artists took this as a personal insult. The severity of the situation was concluded in the fact that the Academy of Arts, which in essence was one of the court institutions, headed by members of the imperial family, at that time was going through a deep crisis. Cultivating the obsolete views of late classicism, the Academy lost its authority. Many leading Russian artists departed from it. Vereshchagin's public refusal further lowered the prestige of this government institution. The authorities tried to muffle the discussion of Vasily Vasilyevich's act in the print media. It was forbidden to publish articles criticizing the Academy and even more expressing solidarity with Vereshchagin.
Warrior rider in Jaipur. Around 1881
In India, the artist lived for two years, visited many regions, traveled to Tibet. At the beginning of 1876 he returned to France, and in 1882-1883 he again wandered around India, since the materials collected during the first trip were not enough. As in his previous travels, Vereshchagin carefully studied folk life, visited monuments of culture and history. Vasily Vasilyevich worked sparing neither health nor strength. He happened to repel the attacks of wild animals, drown in the river, freeze on mountain peaks, and get sick with severe tropical malaria. The culmination of the Indian cycle was the accusatory picture "The suppression of the Indian uprising by the British", showing the cruelest scene of the execution of recalcitrant Indian peasants by cannons by the British colonialists.
In early 1877, the Russian-Turkish war began. Upon learning of this, the artist immediately abandoned his paintings in Paris and went to the army. Without government support, but with the right to free movement, he was among the adjutants of the commander-in-chief of the Danube army. Vasily Vasilyevich took part in a number of battles, witnessed many battles. Every free minute he grabbed a pencil and paints, he often had to work under Turkish bullets. To the questions of friends about why he voluntarily participates in battles and risks his life, the artist answered: “You can’t give paintings to society real war, looking at the battle through binoculars ... You need to feel everything and do it yourself, participate in assaults, attacks, victories and defeats, know cold, hunger, wounds, illnesses ... You must not be afraid to sacrifice your meat and blood, otherwise the pictures will be “not right”.
Before the attack. Near Plevna
On June 8, 1877, while participating on the Danube as a volunteer in the attack of a small destroyer against a huge Turkish steamer, Vasily Vasilyevich was seriously wounded and almost died. Still not recovered, the artist rushed to Plevna, where Russian troops stormed the stronghold for the third time. The Battle of Plevna became the basis of a series famous paintings artist. At the end of the war, the headquarters of Commander-in-Chief Vereshchagin was asked what award or order he would like to receive. “Of course, none!” - answered the artist. The Russian-Turkish war brought him great personal grief. His beloved younger brother Sergei died, and another brother - Alexander - was seriously wounded. Trouble for Vereshchagin was also the loss of about forty of his sketches. This happened due to the negligence of a number of persons whom he instructed to send the work to Russia.
The Balkan series of Vereshchagin is the most significant in his work, both in terms of artistic skill and ideological content. It depicts the inexpressible torment, hard work and horrendous disasters that war brings to the masses of soldiers and peoples. In connection with the opening of the Vereshchagin exhibitions in St. Petersburg in 1880 and 1883, many articles supporting the artist appeared in the press: solemn processions. All that fascinating, ceremonial setting that humanity has come up with to cover up the most disgusting of its deeds is unfamiliar to the brush of the artist, before you is only naked reality. Interest in Vereshchagin's paintings in society was unusually high. In private houses, clubs, in theaters and on the streets, there was a lively discussion of them. Critic Vladimir Stasov wrote: “Not all of Vereshchagin's paintings are equal - he has both weak and mediocre ones. Although where is the artist seen, who in a number of works had only pearls and diamonds of the highest caliber? This thing is unthinkable. But who in Russia does not feel the grandeur of the Vereshchagin exhibition, which has nothing like it not only here, but throughout Europe? Their best contemporary war painters are still far from our Vereshchagin in boldness and depth of realism .... By technique, by expression, by thought, by feeling, Vereshchagin has never risen so high. Only those who are completely devoid of artistic meaning and feeling do not understand this.
Snow trenches (Russian positions on the Shipka Pass)
Nevertheless, the authorities still accused the artist of being anti-patriotic, of sympathizing with the now Turkish army, of deliberately discrediting the Russian generals. There were even proposals to deprive Vasily Vasilyevich of the title of Knight of St. George, arrest and send him into exile. By the way, not only in our country, but in Europe, and later in America, the ruling circles were afraid of the accusatory, anti-militarist influence of Vereshchagin's paintings. For example, later artist wrote from the USA: “When I was offered to take children to the exhibition at a low price, they told me that my paintings could turn young people away from the war, which, according to these“ gentlemen ”,is undesirable.” And to a journalist’s question about how famous modern generals relate to his works, Vereshchagin replied: “Moltke (Helmuth von Moltke - the largest military theorist of the nineteenth century) adored them and was always the first at exhibitions. However, he issued an order forbidding soldiers to view the paintings. He allowed officers, but not soldiers. To the reproaches that fell upon some military men that Vereshchagin in his works too thickens the tragic sides of the war, the artist replied that he had not shown even a tenth of what he had observed in reality.
Due to severe emotional experiences, Vasily Vasilyevich developed a serious nervous breakdown, which led to internal doubts. In a letter to Stasov in April 1882, he said: Battle paintings there will be no more - that's it! I take my work too close to my heart, crying out the grief of each killed and wounded. In Russia, in Prussia, in Austria, the revolutionary orientation of my military scenes was recognized. Well, let not the revolutionaries draw, but I will find other plots. In 1884, Vasily Vasilyevich went to Palestine and Syria. After the trip, he created a series of paintings on absolutely unusual gospel stories for him. However, the artist interpreted them in a very original way, completely different from the traditions adopted in European fine art. It must be added that Vereshchagin was a materialist and atheist, did not believe in supernatural miracles and mysticism. As a result of long reflections, he tried to materialistically present the gospel legends, which the church recognized as sheer sacrilege. The Catholic clergy were terribly “offended” by the paintings: the archbishops wrote whole appeals against them, groups of fanatics were looking for the artist, wanting to settle accounts with him, and one monk poured acid over the paintings “The Resurrection of Christ” and “The Holy Family”, almost destroying them. In Russia, all the gospel canvases of Vasily Vasilyevich were banned.
Workshop of Vasily Vereshchagin in his house in Nizhnye Kotly. 1890s
In 1890, the artist's dream of returning to his homeland came true. He settled in a new house on the outskirts of the capital, but lived there for a very short time, going on a trip to Russia. As in his youth, he was interested in monuments, the life of the population, nature, folk types, ancient Russian applied art. Among the paintings of the Russian cycle (1888-1895), the most outstanding were the portraits of "unremarkable Russians" - the faces of ordinary people from the people.
Napolen on the Borodino field
In 1887, Vasily Vasilyevich started a new monumental series dedicated to the Patriotic War of 1812. The twenty paintings he created were a truly majestic epic full of patriotic pathos about the Russian people, about their national pride and courage, hatred for the conquerors and devotion to the Motherland. Vereshchagin did a gigantic research work, studied many memoirs of his contemporaries and historical materials written in different European languages. He personally explored the field of the Battle of Borodino, got acquainted with the relics of the era, created a lot of sketches and sketches. The fate of a series of paintings about 1812 remained unresolved for many years. Designed for large palace halls and museums, the paintings did not appeal to private patrons. The government looked at Vereshchagin's new works with hostility and distrust, also stubbornly refusing to buy all the paintings at once, and the artist did not agree to sell one or two from an integral and indivisible series. Only on the eve of the centenary of the Patriotic War, under the pressure of public opinion, the tsarist government was forced to purchase canvases.
Vereshchagin at the easel, 1902
At the end of his life, Vasily Vasilyevich made a number of long trips. In 1901, the artist visited the Philippine Islands, in 1902 - in Cuba and the United States, in 1903 - in Japan. Unusually picturesque Japanese sketches have become a new stage in the work of Vereshchagin, testifying to his tireless work on the development of skill. The artist's journey through Japan was interrupted by the deteriorating political situation. Afraid of being interned, Vereshchagin left the country in a hurry and returned to Russia.
In his speeches, he warned the government of the impending war, but as soon as it began, the sixty-two-year-old artist considered it his moral duty to go to the front. Vereshchagin left his beloved wife and three children at home and went into the midst of hostilities in order to once again tell people the whole truth about the war, to show its true essence. He died along with Admiral Stepan Makarov on March 31, 1904, while on board the flagship Petropavlovsk, which had flown into Japanese mines. It was death at a military post in the full sense of the word. Captain Nikolai Yakovlev, who miraculously escaped during the Petropavlovsk disaster, said that before the explosion he saw Vasily Vasilyevich, entering into the album the sea panorama that opened to his eyes.
The death of Vereshchagin caused responses around the world. Magazines and newspapers published articles about his life and work. At the end of 1904, a large posthumous exhibition of the artist’s paintings opened in St. Petersburg, and a couple of years later a museum named after him was built in Nikolaev. Vasily Vasilyevich became one of the first who managed to express in the visual arts the idea that war should not and cannot be a means of resolving international conflicts. He believed that education and science were the main engines of progress. All his life he remained a fierce enemy of "barbarism", despotism and violence, a defender of the oppressed and destitute. Ilya Repin said about Vereshchagin: "A colossal personality, truly heroic - a super artist, a superman."
Monument-bust on the forecourt of the city of Vereshchagino
Based on materials from the site http://www.centre.smr.ru
Vasily Vereshchagin is known throughout the world as an unsurpassed battle painter. He painted from nature, right on the battlefields. He created amazing documentary and artistic annals of military operations.
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