On the 170 anniversary of Vasily Vereschagin's birth

Celebration, 1868 // The culmination of the Turkestan series is the suite of paintings known as "The Barbarians." It consists of seven paintings (the original concept included nine, but two remained unfulfilled) on a common theme: the tragic annihilation of a Russian detachment surrounded and wiped out by troops from Bukhara.

Apotheosis of the war, 1871 // He also wrote literary works: autobiographical prose, memoirs, travel essays, and articles about art, and used the press as a medium of expression. His articles calling for the cessation of war acquired special resonance. Vereshchagin's authority as a "fighter against war" was such that he was a candidate for the first ever Nobel Peace Prize, awarded in 1901.

Napoleon and marshal Loriston, 1900 // In the "Napoleonic series," Vereshchagin not only paints battle scenes, but discovers in himself an essentially new role as historian and psychologist. He pays far more attention than before to creating a psychological portrayal.

Close with the bayonet! Hurray! Hurray!, 1887-1895 // Begun back in Paris, his series of paintings about the war of 1812 occupied the remainder of the artist's days. However, the concept underwent significant changes: his suite of paintings depicting Napoleon and his Russian campaign turned into a national historical epic.

Shrines in Jerusalem, 1870s // In Palestine, he produced around 50 sketches, mostly views of nature and monuments to biblical stories, which Vereshchagin neither poeticises nor stylizes, but seeks to portray with absolute accuracy. Devoid of religious feeling, he paints the Holy Land from a realistic and historical point of view.

The losers: A requiem // Two of the canvases are "The Winners" and "The Losers: A Requiem," inspired by the bloody battles at Telish. Significantly, almost none of Vereshchagin's creations depict actual battle scenes. He paints the moments leading up to, or immediately following, the battle — the everyday "psychological aspect" of war, as expressed by Turgenev. A literary equivalent can be found in the works of Tolstoy.

The Winners // The "Balkan series" that was considered as the culmination of Vereshchagin's creativity, was created in Paris in 1878-1879 (some paintings were produced later), based on studies and a collection of original items imported from Bulgaria.

The statues of three main buddhist gods, Chingachelim Monastery, Sikkim // After the Turkestan landscapes, full of dry and relentless sunshine, India seemed exotically bright and luxurious.

Kazbek, 1897 // Journeying in the face of warnings about the harsh winter months, he very nearly paid with his life: abandoned by his guides at an altitude of 14,000 feet, he almost froze to death. Nevertheless, in India he produced about 150 sketches.

Tadj-Mahal, Agra, 1874 // Without waiting for the closing exhibition in St. Petersburg, or a conclusion to negotiations on the sale of the Turkestan series, in April 1874 the artist left Russia for India. His Indian voyage lasted two years. Vereshchagin lived in Mumbai, Agra, Delhi, and Jaipur, before taking a three-month trip to the Eastern Himalayas in late 1874.

Kyrgyzia, Yurts on the Chu riverside, 1875 // Vereshchagin's vision of Turkestan was not the harmonious and holistic East that Delacroix saw. He paints the dazzling sun of Central Asia, but also perceives a dark, wild side of eastern life that he describes as "Asiatic barbarism," which fills him with indignation and protest.

Rich kyrgyz hunter with a hawk, 1871 // In its final form, the "Turkestan series" includes 13 paintings, 81 sketches, and 133 drawings: that was the collection displayed at Vereshchagin's first solo exhibition in London in 1873, and then in St. Petersburg and Moscow in 1874.

The Afghan, 1867-1868 // Vereshchagin first achieved widespread fame in 1873-1874, when he exhibited a series of paintings, sketches, and drawings inspired by Turkestan. In 1867, he enlisted in the service of the Governor-General of Turkestan K.P. Kaufman. In performing his duties, he produced many drawings and sketches of nature, kept a detailed travel diary, collected ethnographic and zoological specimens, and even engaged in archaeological excavations.

Interior of the Ioann the Divine, Rostov Yaroslavsky, 1888 // Vereshchagin appreciated images of photographic clarity, which he perceived as something analogous to "evidence" in the natural sciences, and deliberately strove to ensure that his paintings did not suffer in comparison with photography. That was how he developed his method of painting — the only one of its kind in Russian art in the second half of the nineteenth century, which somehow seems to contest the very credibility and objectivity of nature with its mechanical fixation.

Merchant, Bombey, 1874-1876 // For him, the lives of indigenous peoples, and even the animal world — everything that lives outside the laws of reason, guided by "instinct" — were a repository of largely untapped experience and "common sense acquired over centuries and passed down through the generations." For that reason, Vereshchagin considered it vital to study all human civilizations across the length and breadth of the world.

Parvis of the Ioann the Forerunner Church in Yaroslavl // Vereshchagin's formative years were the 1860s, when he was strongly influenced by the ideology of the Enlightenment and positivist philosophy. That was when his Weltanschaung, or world view, took shape: unconditional materialism, atheism, a deep interest in science, a desire for positive knowledge, hostility to everything state-owned, and belief in education, civilization, and progress.

Catching unawares, 1868 // In the Russian art he stands apart from any movements. He hasn't got neither teachers nor successors. In his series Vereschagin depicts war (and piece) in all its frightful naturalistic splendor.

River promenade, 1900s // Famous Russian artist Vasily Vereschagin was born Oct 26, 1842. Enthusiast and philanthrope, he was a irrepressible traveller. He lived in Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Paris, Munich, Tashkent and visited Turkestan, Caucasus, Palestine, USA, Philippines, Japan, Cuba...