 | Vasily Vasilievich VERESHCHAGIN 1842 — 1904Василь Васильович ВЕРЕЩАГІН • Василий Васильевич ВЕРЕЩАГИНVasily Vasilievich Vereshchagin was born in a noble family in Cherepovets, Novgorod province, Russia in 1842. Studied at naval cadet college, St.Petersburg in 1853-1860 and Drawing School of OPK 1858-1960. From 1860to 1863 at the Academy of Arts, St. Petersburg and Academie des Beaux-Arts, Paris in 1864-1866 where he studied under Jean Leon Gerom.. Exhibited with ITINERANTS (“Peredvizhniki”). Specialized in scenes of war. Unlike most contemporary battle pieces depicting war as a kind of parade, Vereshchagin’s paintings revealed its viciousness, showing soldiers as the most important element in war and the chief victim of it. Painted pictures of Central Asian life, notably the “Turkestan Series” 1868-1873. One of the thirteen painting students who quit the Academy in 1863. The Academy taught entirely on the principles of late Classicism, which dissatisfied the young man and, although he got a Minor Silver Medal for Ulysses Slaying the Suitors of Penelope he destroyed the painting saying that he would not paint such nonsense any longer. He was a founding member of the ARTEL of artists. Traveled extensively: to the Caucasus early 1860s, Central Asia 1867-1869; to India 1874-76; 1882-1883; to Syria and Palestine 1884; to the Balkans during the Russian – Turkish War 1877-1878, to the Philippines, Japan and Cuba 1901-1902. Died in an explosion on the warship “Petropavlovsk” during the Russian-Japanese war, near Port Arthur, Pacific Ocean, 1904. |
