Vereshchagin, Vasily (1842-1904) - 1877 Cart for the Wounded (The Museum of Russian Art, Kiev, Ukraine)
Oil on panel.
Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin was one of the most famous Russian battle painters and one of the first Russian artists to be widely recognized abroad. His father was a Russian landowner of noble birth. When he was eight years old he was sent to Tsarskoe Selo to enter the Alexander cadet corps, and three years later he entered the naval school at St Petersburg, making his first voyage in 1858. He graduated first in the list from the naval school, but left the service immediately to begin the study of drawing in earnest. He won a medal two years later, in 1863, from the St Petersburg Academy for his Ulysses slaying the Suitors. In 1864 he proceeded to Paris, where he studied under Gerome, though he dissented widely from his master's methods.
In 1867 he accompanied General Kaufman's expedition to Turkestan, his military service at the siege of Samarkand procuring for him the cross of St George . He was an indefatigable traveler in Turkestan in 1869, the Himalayas, India and Tibet in 1873, and again in India in 1884. After a period of hard work in Paris and Munich he exhibited some of his Turkestan pictures in St Petersburg in 1874. He was with the Russian army during the Turkish campaign of 1877; he was present at the crossing of the Shipka Pass and at the Siege of Pleven, where his brother was killed; and he was dangerously wounded during the preparations for the crossing of the Danube near Rustchuk.
After the war he settled at Munich, where he produced his war pictures so rapidly that he was freely accused of employing assistants. The sensational subjects of his pictures, and their didactic aim the promotion of peace by a representation of the horrors of war attracted a large section of the public not usually interested in art to the series of exhibitions of his pictures in Paris in 1881 and subsequently in London, Berlin, Dresden, Vienna and other cities. He painted several scenes of British imperial rule in India. His epic portrayal of The State Procession of the Prince of Wales into Jaipur in 1876 is claimed to be the third largest painting in the world.
Vereshchagin, Vasily (1842-1904) - 1877 Cart for the Wounded (The Museum of Russian Art, Kiev, Ukraine)
Oil on panel.
Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin was one of the most famous Russian battle painters and one of the first Russian artists to be widely recognized abroad. His father was a Russian landowner of noble birth. When he was eight years old he was sent to Tsarskoe Selo to enter the Alexander cadet corps, and three years later he entered the naval school at St Petersburg, making his first voyage in 1858. He graduated first in the list from the naval school, but left the service immediately to begin the study of drawing in earnest. He won a medal two years later, in 1863, from the St Petersburg Academy for his Ulysses slaying the Suitors. In 1864 he proceeded to Paris, where he studied under Gerome, though he dissented widely from his master's methods.
In 1867 he accompanied General Kaufman's expedition to Turkestan, his military service at the siege of Samarkand procuring for him the cross of St George . He was an indefatigable traveler in Turkestan in 1869, the Himalayas, India and Tibet in 1873, and again in India in 1884. After a period of hard work in Paris and Munich he exhibited some of his Turkestan pictures in St Petersburg in 1874. He was with the Russian army during the Turkish campaign of 1877; he was present at the crossing of the Shipka Pass and at the Siege of Pleven, where his brother was killed; and he was dangerously wounded during the preparations for the crossing of the Danube near Rustchuk.
After the war he settled at Munich, where he produced his war pictures so rapidly that he was freely accused of employing assistants. The sensational subjects of his pictures, and their didactic aim the promotion of peace by a representation of the horrors of war attracted a large section of the public not usually interested in art to the series of exhibitions of his pictures in Paris in 1881 and subsequently in London, Berlin, Dresden, Vienna and other cities. He painted several scenes of British imperial rule in India. His epic portrayal of The State Procession of the Prince of Wales into Jaipur in 1876 is claimed to be the third largest painting in the world.