Artist Vereshchagin paintings. Literary and historical notes of a young technician

The largest battle painter Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin was born on October 14, 1842 in Cherepovets in the family of a landowner. When the boy was eight years old, his parents sent him to the Juvenile Cadet Corps, after which in 1853 he was transferred to the St. Petersburg Naval Cadet Corps. Here he is fond of drawing and devotes all his free time to him. In 1858 Vereshchagin began attending the drawing school of the St. Petersburg Society for the Encouragement of Arts. His abilities were praised by teachers, and he himself dreamed of becoming an artist.

In 1860, having brilliantly graduated from the building, Vereshchagin, against the will of his parents, resigned and entered the Academy of Arts. Outraged by the act of his son, the father refused him material assistance. Difficult years of life began. Vereshchagin persisted in painting, but the academic system of education, with its normative and traditional nature, weighed on the artist. The young painter's protest was expressed in the fact that he destroyed one of his paintings - "The Beating of Penelope's Grooms by the Returning Ulysses". In 1863 he left the Academy and went to the Caucasus to "study in freedom and openness on interesting subjects." His first independent works were numerous drawings depicting folk types, everyday scenes and landscapes of the Caucasus.

In 1866, living on the banks of the Sheksna in the village of Lyubets, Vereshchagin could see the hard work of barge haulers. He decided to create a big picture in which he wanted to show the hopeless share of the poor people in tsarist Russia. Vereshchagin completed a sketch of the picture, wrote several sketches, but failed to complete the work.

In 1867, he left for Turkestan, where military clashes were taking place at that time. "I went because I wanted to know what a true war is, about which I read and heard a lot ...", the artist wrote. Vereshchagin is not only a witness to the war, but also its direct participant. In 1868, as part of the Russian garrison, he defended the Samarkand fortress from the troops of the Bukhara emir and was awarded the St. George Cross for bravery and courage. In 1869-1870 Vereshchagin again took a trip to Turkestan: he got acquainted with this peculiar country, studied the customs and customs of the feudal East; as a result, he creates a large series of paintings about Central Asia.

The exoticism of the sunny East, elegant and bright costumes did not overshadow the poverty and lack of rights of the people from the humanist artist. This is how the paintings appeared: "Beggars in Samarkand" (1870, TG), "Opium-eaters" (State Museum of Arts of the Uzbek SSR), "Sale of a Slave Child" (1872, State Tretyakov Gallery), "Samarkand Zindan" (State Museum of Arts of the Uzbek SSR) SSR), "An Uzbek Woman in Tashkent" (1873, Tretyakov Gallery) and many others. The artist is fluent in the brush, and sonorous, rich colors convey the sultry southern sky, the spring green steppe, the coolness of mountain peaks covered with snow, the most complex ornamentation of the ancient buildings of Samarkand. ..

The central place in this series is occupied by battle canvases, it was they who had great success both in Russia and abroad, defining the main direction of Vereshchagin's work. Already in the earliest canvases, the artist protested against the wars of conquest, denouncing those who were responsible for the deaths of people. The anti-militaristic character of the works is the result of deep meditations and life observations of Vereshchagin, who introduced into battle painting a bold, harsh truth, which Russian art did not know in this genre before him. He made soldiers, ordinary Russian people, the heroes of his paintings. "The soldiers of Vereshchagin," wrote V.V. Stasov, "are all the same people, only ... wearing a uniform and a gun."

In the painting "At the Fortress Wall. Let them Enter" (1871, Tretyakov Gallery), Russian soldiers await the battle in suspense. Their faces are stern, their positions are firmly resolved. In the picture "They Entered" - the same place in the fortress, but after the battle. A number of battle canvases are combined into a series, where the artist develops the idea of ​​the cruelty of the feudal rulers, the savagery of the order, the heroism and courage of Russian soldiers: "Look out" (1873, Tretyakov Gallery), "Attack by surprise" (1871, Tretyakov Gallery), "Present trophies" ( 1872, Tretyakov Gallery), Triumph (1872, Tretyakov Gallery) and The Apotheosis of War (1871-1872, Tretyakov Gallery).

In the canvas "The Apotheosis of War" against the background of the city destroyed by the war and charred trees, there is a pyramid of human skulls. Initially, the idea of ​​the painting was associated with the name of the Central Asian conqueror of the late 14th - early 15th centuries, Tamerlane, whose troops left behind such pyramids. But the work is more significant in content than a specific historical episode. Ruins, skulls, desert at all times were perceived as a symbol of death and destruction, and Vereshchagin makes an inscription on the frame: "Dedicated to all the great conquerors, past, present and future." "The Apotheosis of War" is a harsh condemnation of wars that bring death and misfortune.

“I don’t know,” wrote I. N. Kramskoy about Vereshchagin, “is there currently an artist equal to him not only in our country, but also abroad ...” accused him of slandering the Russian army. Grieving the unfair accusations, Vereshchagin burned three paintings: "Forgotten", "Surrounded - Persecuted" and "They Entered". Vereshchagin's works were forbidden to be exhibited and reproduced in books, newspapers and magazines. For thirty years, the tsarist government did not acquire a single painting by the artist who became world famous. Only P.M. Tretyakov bought most of the Turkestan works. In 1874-1876, 1882-1883 Vereshchagin made two trips to India to study the life, nature and way of life of the country. During his travels he had to endure hardships, endure mortal danger: on the snowy peaks of the Himalayas, he almost froze to death; in the conditions of the sweltering tropical heat he fell ill with a fever. The result of the observations was more than one hundred and fifty sketches depicting the greatness of white-stone Indian architecture, the blue of the southern sky, and the bright national clothes of the Indians. Among the best sketches are: "Buddhist Temple in Darjeeling" (1874-1875, Tretyakov Gallery), "Glacier on the road from Kashmir to Ladakh" (1875, Tretyakov Gallery), "Taj Mahal Mausoleum" (1874-1876, Tretyakov Gallery).

Vereshchagin decided to devote a number of paintings to the history of the capture of India by the British. He conceived the idea of ​​creating a large pictorial poem, which was supposed to tell about the historical fate of India, about the transformation of a powerful independent country into a colony of the British Empire. The artist managed to complete only a few of these paintings, in particular "Procession of the English and Native Authorities in Jaipur" (1875-1879, Victoria Memorial Museum, Calcutta).

The Russian-Turkish war that broke out in 1877-1878 brought him to the front again. With all his heart sympathizing with the liberation struggle of the Slavs against the Turkish yoke, the artist participated in many battles. In one of the battles he was seriously wounded and almost died.

"To fulfill the goal I set myself," wrote Vereshchagin, "you cannot 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 , diseases, wounds. We must not be afraid to sacrifice our blood, our flesh, otherwise my pictures will not be right. "

The war in Vereshchagin's canvases again appeared in all the harsh and courageous truth, as a dramatic event. With pain and bitterness, the artist experienced the huge human losses in this difficult bloody war.

Pictures of the Balkan series with unparalleled truthfulness reproduce the everyday life of the war, episodes of battles: the difficult transitions of the Russian army in the mountains, field dressing hospitals and scenes of the atrocities of the Turks. The artist also revealed the reverse side of the war: he showed the careerism and criminality of the tsarist command, which doomed Russian soldiers to senseless death. The main group of works consists of pictures of the heroic defense of Shipka: "Dugouts on Shipka" (State Museum of Russian Art, Kiev), "Batteries on Shipka" (State Museum of Russian Art, Kiev) "Everything is calm on Shipka" (1878-1879, location unknown), "Shipka-Sheinovo" (1878-1879, Tretyakov Gallery).

Vereshchagin devotes a number of canvases to the events connected with the assault on Plevna: "Attack" (1881, Central Artillery Historical Museum), "After the Attack" (1881, Tretyakov Gallery). The paintings "Winners" (1878-1879, State Museum of Russian Art, Kiev), "The Defeated. Dirge for the Dead" (1878-1879, Tretyakov Gallery) are dedicated to the battle of Telish - here, due to the fault of "the highest persons", almost a whole regiment of gamekeepers was destroyed ... The painting "Winners" depicts a terrible masquerade: Turks disguised on the battlefield in the uniforms of killed Russian soldiers; the other - "The Vanquished" - represents an endless field strewn with the corpses of soldiers. Paintings of the Balkan series: they are distinguished by severe simplicity and restraint of the color scheme. The color is brought to the necessary unity of either gloomy autumn or cloudy winter tones. In 1880 and 1883 this series was exhibited in St. Petersburg. For forty days the exhibition was attended by more than two hundred thousand people, the success exceeded all expectations.

The 1880s in the artist's creative life were marked by extraordinary activity, the search for new themes. He went to India a second time (1882-1883) and then to Syria and Palestine (1883-1884). This is how the "Palestinian Series" emerged, consisting mainly of etudes and paintings of a documentary and ethnographic nature. The artist's work on the creation of the "Execution Trilogy" is significant: "Crucifixion during the rule of the Romans", "Execution of conspirators in Russia" (1884-1885, State Museum of the Revolution) and "Suppression of the Indian uprising by the British" (about 1884, whereabouts unknown) ... The second picture was inspired by the massacre of the autocracy against the Narodnaya Volya revolutionaries on April 3, 1881.

Vereshchagin's trips to the North in 1880-1890 resulted in a series of drawings and sketches depicting monuments of ancient wooden architecture, Russian northern nature and ordinary Russian people. From 1887 to 1901 Vereshchagin worked on a series of paintings dedicated to the Patriotic War of 1812. More than twenty canvases were created by him on this topic. The artist was guided by lofty patriotic thoughts - "to show in the paintings of 1812 the great national spirit of the Russian people, their dedication and heroism in the fight against the enemy." The artist was able to express the liberating, popular character of the war, to debunk Napoleon, to deprive him of "the pedestal of the hero to which he was lifted."

The series begins with a scene of the Battle of Borodino, to which Vereshchagin dedicated two canvases: Napoleon at the Borodino Heights (1897) and The End of the Battle of Borodino (1899-1900, State Historical Museum). The stay of the Napoleonic army in Moscow is reflected in fourteen paintings. Among them: "In the Assumption Cathedral" (1887-1895), "Fire" (1896-1897), "Through the Fire" (1899-1900), "Shooting in the Kremlin" (1897-1898; all in the State Historical Museum) other. Several paintings show the retreat and defeat of the French army: "In Grodno, break through or retreat", "At the stage - bad news from France" (1887-1895),

"On the high road. Retreat and flight" (1887-1895), "Night halt of the great army" (1896-1897, State Historical Museum). A large place in the series was taken by the theme of the people's guerrilla war against the invaders. It is also important to note that the artist did not depict famous partisan commanders, such as D. Davydov, Figner, but recreated the feat of ordinary peasants, participants in the people's liberation movement.

Caps of fluffy white snow covered the branches of the pine trees. In an ambush, the peasants await the enemy. Ahead, gazing intently into the thicket, stands a tall old man with an ax in his lowered hand. The enemy is approaching. Excitement and impatience can be seen on the faces of the partisans, but the old, experienced and wise leader is holding back his comrades. “Don't hide, let me come,” he seems to say.

These words are the name of the painting (1887-1895, State Historical Museum). The artist resorts to a broad, somewhat decorative interpretation of the landscape, trying to create a generalized epic image of Russian nature. The painting "Shoot with arms in hand" (1887-1895, State Historical Museum) depicts the massacre of partisans who were captured by the French. In one of the last works, "The Night Halt of the Great Army," the inglorious end of the invaders is depicted, the complete defeat of the once invincible army.

The great patriotic idea underlying the series, the depth and sharpness of the plots, vivid folk images, interesting compositional solutions make this last major work of the artist a worthy contribution to the historical painting of the late 19th century.

Until the end of his life, the artist did not stop traveling. After a trip to Syria and Palestine in the late 80s and early 90s, he twice visited America, in 1901-1902 - in the Philippines and Cuba, in 1903 - in Japan. Impressions from Japan are reflected in a number of sketches that give an idea of ​​the ancient architecture, full of originality, and the national customs of this interesting country.

The Russo-Japanese War found Vereshchagin working on several paintings; he left everything and, according to Repin, "flew" to the Far East to participate in battles again and tell about them in his works. "Some," wrote Vereshchagin, "spread the idea of ​​peace with their captivating powerful word, others put forward various arguments in defense of it, religious, economic, and others, and I preach the same thing through colors."

On March 31, 1904, Vereshchagin, together with Admiral S.O. Makarov, died on the battleship Petropavlovsk, blown up by an enemy mine on the roadstead near Port Arthur.

Vereshchagin is an artist of legendary fate and glory. For his contemporaries - both at home and in Europe - he is not only an outstanding painter, but also a desperate revolutionary, breaking with the generally accepted in life and work, an outstanding talent and an outstanding nature - perhaps as a nature he is even more significant, grander than as a talent ... "Vereshchagin is not just an artist, but something more," wrote Kramskoy after the first acquaintance with his painting, and a few years later remarked again: "Despite the interest of his art collections, the author himself is a hundred times more interesting and instructive."

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He lived, as it were, in spite of everything that seemed inevitable and established, as if not feeling the oppression of the rules of life and everyday circumstances. He was a man of an egocentric nature, who openly allowed himself to disregard his surroundings and surroundings in words and deeds, inconvenient in communication, harsh to the point of arrogance, changeable in moods, unpredictable in actions, "a man of impromptu", as he once called himself. A nervous, impulsive nature, unusually active and efficient, Vereshchagin spends his whole life on the road. For him, as if there are no boundaries: he lives in St. Petersburg, Tashkent, Munich, Paris, at the end of his life - in Moscow; undertakes long journeys - to the Caucasus and Turkestan, to India and Palestine, to Europe and Russia, to the Philippines and Cuba, to America and Japan. As an officer, he takes part in all military operations conducted by the Russian army - in Central Asia, in the Balkans, in Japan. This is a man of tremendous energy, unbreakable will, extraordinary courage and courage, various skills, a "seasoned person" who habitually and confidently feels himself at the easel, and in the saddle, and in a camping tent, and in a front trench.
Vereshchagin never wrote to order, did not bow to requests and exhortations, whether they came from the authorities, from criticism or from the public. A man with a sense of dignity heightened to the point of soreness, he was most afraid of losing independence, of what "will follow when my throat is gagged with money," as he once put it. He did not seek the support of those in power, generally avoided "writing and speaking with important people," because he knew behind himself the peculiarity of being impudent and even rude against his will. In official circles, they paid him the same: they treated him unkindly, found the subjects of his paintings tendentious and gloomy, and they were ready to count him as the head of nihilism in Russian art. “I will always do what and only what I myself find good, and in the way I myself find it necessary,” - Vereshchagin has been faithful to this principle throughout his life both in creativity, and in beliefs, and in relations with others.
In Russian art, he stands alone. He has no direct teachers and direct followers. He does not bind himself by adherence to any artistic association, stands outside parties and circles, does not seek or accept anyone's awards. In 1874, Vereshchagin publicly refuses the title of professor at the Academy of Arts offered to him, arguing that he considers "all ranks and distinctions in art to be undoubtedly harmful." This act receives a wide resonance: in essence, Vereshchagin is the first Russian artist who decides to openly, openly, demonstratively put himself outside the traditional order - he does what we all know, think, and even, perhaps, desire; there is not enough courage, character, and sometimes honesty to do the same ", - as Kramskoy commented on his act.

Vereshchagin is firmly convinced that the artist should address one-on-one to the viewer. For him, only one form of addressing the public is acceptable - a personal exhibition. During his lifetime, there were over sixty of them - in almost all European capitals, the largest cities of Russia and America. Vereshchagin is the first Russian artist who programmatically appealed not only to the domestic audience, but to people of all countries and was heard in the world. Among his admirers - the flower of the European intelligentsia: Turgenev and Stasov, Kramskoy and Zabelin, Repin and Menzel, Liszt and Mussorgsky, Goncharov and Garshin, Brandes and Sarah Bernhardt. Wherever the artist's exhibitions took place, they always and invariably attracted an unheard-of number of people, became the subject of passionate, sometimes fierce disputes, and left an indelible impression. "It is still memorable," says Alexander Benois, "how 20 years ago they burst into Vereshchagin's exhibition and what a monstrous and enveloping impression his motley and bloody paintings produced. These exhibitions, arranged in rooms without daylight, hung with strange foreign objects and lined with tropical plants We clearly remember how an impenetrable, ever-growing mass of people crowded in front of the huge pictures brightly illuminated by electricity. unfortunate troops stretched over the mountains in deep snow, or a priest in a black robe was singing a burial service under a dim sky a whole field of decapitated naked dead - these canvases acted like severe nightmares of fever. "

Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin (1842-1904) - Russian painter and writer, one of the most famous battle painters.

Biography of Vasily Vereshchagin

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. Striving (in his own words) "to learn from the living annals of the history of the world", he traveled across Russia, the Caucasus, the Crimea, the Danube, Western Europe, twice visited Turkestan (1867-1868, 1869-1870), participating in the colonial campaigns of Russian troops, twice - in India (1874-1876, 1882). In 1877-1878 he took part 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 of the trips were embodied in large cycles of sketches and paintings.

Creativity Vereshchagin

In the battle pictures of Vereshchagin, the reverse side of the war is revealed with journalistic sharpness, with harsh realism.

Although his famous "Turkestan series" has a very definite imperial propaganda orientation, in his paintings a feeling of tragic doom, emphasized by a dull yellowish - brown, truly "desert" coloring, gravitates over the winners and the vanquished everywhere.

The famous symbol of the entire series is the painting "The Apotheosis of War" (1870–1871, Tretyakov Gallery), depicting a pile of skulls in the desert; on the frame there is an inscription: "Dedicated to all great conquerors: past, present and future."

Vereshchagin's "Turkestan" series of paintings 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 that the Russians paid for the liberation of the Bulgarians from the Ottoman yoke.

Particularly impressive is the painting “The Defeated. Panikhida ”(1878–1879, Tretyakov Gallery), where a whole field of soldiers' corpses spreads under a cloudy sky, covered with only a thin layer of earth. His series "Napoleon in Russia" (1887-1900) also won wide fame.

The artist Vereshchagin was also a gifted writer, the author of the book At the War in Asia and Europe. Memories "(1894); of great interest are also the "Selected Letters" by the artist Vereshchagin (reprinted in 1981).

Vereshchagin died during the Russian-Japanese war, March 31 (April 13) 1904, in the explosion of the battleship "Petropavlovsk" on the roadstead of Port Arthur.

Artist's works

• Turkestan series
• Napoleon in Russia (Vereshchagin)
• series "Barbarians": "Look out" (1873), "Attack by surprise" (1871), "Surrounded - pursued ..." (1872) "Present trophies" (1872), "Triumph" (1872).
• "Religious procession at the Moharrem holiday in Shusha" (1865)
• "Street in the village of Khojagente" (1868)
• "Former fortification Kosh-Tigermen" (1868)
• "Hod to zindan (underground prison) in Samarkand" (1868)
• "Entry to the city of Katta-Kurgan" (1868)
• "After the failure (The Defeated)", 1868, State Russian Museum
• "Ruins of the theater in Chuguchak" (1869)
• "Kyrgyz wagons on the Chu River" (1869)
• "Beggars in Samarkand" (1870)
• “Politicians in the Opium Shop. Tashkent "(1870)
• “Dervishes in festive outfits. Tashkent "(1870)
• “Choir of dervishes begging for alms. Tashkent "(1870)
• Apotheosis of War (1871), Tretyakov Gallery

• "Doors of Timur (Tamerlane)" (1871-1872), State Tretyakov Gallery
• "Mausoleum of the Taj Mahal in Agra" (1874-1876), State Tretyakov Gallery
• "Pearl Mosque in Agra" (1874-1876), State Tretyakov Gallery
• Shipka-Sheinovo. Skobelev pod Shipka "(1878-1879) State Tretyakov Gallery
• “After the attack. Dressing station near Plevna "(1881), State Tretyakov Gallery
• "In the Turkish deceased" (1881)
• "The suppression of the Indian uprising by the British" (c. 1884)
• Color engraving "Napoleon in the Kremlin" (kept in the A. M. Gorky Museum-Apartment (Nizhny Novgorod)

Introduction

The genre of battles (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) and military campaigns of the present or the past. The desire to capture a particularly important or characteristic moment of the battle, and often to reveal the historical meaning of military events, brings the battle genre closer to the historical genre. 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. A progressive trend in the development of the battle genre of the XIX-XX centuries. connected with a realistic disclosure of the social nature of wars and the role of the people in them, with the exposure of unjust wars of aggression, the glorification of popular heroism in revolutionary and liberation wars, with the education of civil patriotic feelings in the people. In the 20th century, in the era of destructive world wars, works reflecting the cruelty of imperialist wars, the innumerable suffering of peoples, and their readiness to fight for freedom are closely linked with the battle genre, historical and everyday genres.

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 the ancient Roman triumphal arches and columns). In the Middle Ages, battles were depicted in European and Oriental book miniatures ("Obverse Chronicle Collection", Moscow, 16th 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 15th-16th centuries, during the Renaissance in Italy, images of battles were created by Paolo Uccello and Piero della Francesca. The battle scenes received heroic generalization and great ideological content in cardboard for frescoes by Leonardo da Vinci ("Battle of Angyari", 1503-06), who showed the fierceness of the battle, and Michelangelo ("Battle of Cashin", 1504-06), who accentuated heroic readiness warriors to fight. Titian (the so-called "Battle of Cador", 1537-38) introduced the real environment into the battle scene, and Tintoretto - innumerable masses of warriors ("Battle of Dawn", circa 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 by the Frenchman J. Callot, the deep disclosure of the socio-historical significance and ethical meaning of military events by the Spaniard D. Velazquez ("The Surrender of Breda", 1634), the dynamics and drama of the battle paintings of the Flemish P. P. Rubens. Later, professional battle painters emerged (A.F. van der Meulen in France), the types of conditional allegorical composition exalting the commander presented against the background of the battle (C. Lebrun in France), a small battle picture with a spectacular depiction of cavalry clashes, episodes of military everyday life (F. Wowerman in Holland) and scenes of naval battles (W. van de Velde in Holland). In the XVIII century. in connection with the war of 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 "The Battle of Kulikovo" and "The Battle of Poltava" attributed to I.N. Nikitin, engravings by AF Zubov, mosaics from the workshop of MV Lomonosov "The Battle of Poltava" (1762-64), battle-historical compositions by GI Ugryumov, watercolors by MM Ivanov. The Great French Revolution (1789-94) and the Napoleonic Wars were reflected in the work of many artists - A. Gro (who went from being carried away by the romanticism of revolutionary wars to the exaltation of Napoleon I), T. Gericault (who created the heroic and romantic images of the Napoleonic epic), F. Goya (who showed the drama of the struggle of the Spanish people against the French invaders). Historicism and the freedom-loving pathos of romanticism were clearly expressed in the battle-historical paintings of E. Delacroix, inspired by the events of the July Revolution of 1830 in France. The national liberation movements in Europe were inspired by the romantic battle compositions by P. Michalovsky and A. Orlovsky in Poland, G. Wappers in Belgium, and later J. Matejko in Poland, M. Alesha, J. Cermak in the Czech Republic, and others. In France, in In the official battle painting (O. Vernet), false-romantic effects were combined with external plausibility. Russian academic battle painting from traditionally conventional compositions with the commander in the center went to greater documentary accuracy of the overall picture of the battle and genre details (A.I.Sauerweid, B.P. Villevalde, A.E. Kotsebue). Outside the academic tradition of the battle genre, there 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 beginnings 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, J. Veshin in Bulgaria). A realistic depiction of episodes of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 was given by the French E. Detail and A. Neuville. In Russia, the art of sea battle painting flourishes (I.K.Aivazovsky, A.P. Bogolyubov), battle-everyday painting appears (P.O.Kovalevsky, V.D. 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 rejection of conventional schemes are also inherent in the battle genre of the Itinerants - I.M.Pryanishnikov, A.D. Kivshenko, V.I. The greatest master of the battle panorama was F.A.Roubaud. In the XX century. social and national liberation revolutions, unprecedentedly destructive wars radically changed the battle genre, expanding its boundaries and artistic meaning. In many works of the battle genre, historical, philosophical and social issues, problems of peace and war, fascism and war, war and human society, etc. were raised. In the countries of the fascist dictatorship, brute force and cruelty were glorified in soulless, pseudo-monumental forms.

In contrast to the apology of militarism, the Belgian F. Maserel, the German artists K. Kollwitz and O. Dix, the Englishman F. Brangwin, the Mexican H. K. Orozco, the French painter P. Picasso, the Japanese painters Maruka Iri and Maruki Toshiko and others, protesting against fascism , imperialist wars, brutal inhumanity, created brightly emotional, symbolic images of the people's tragedy.

In Soviet art, the battle genre was very broadly developed, 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 highlighted the image of the Soviet soldier-patriot, his staunchness and courage, love for the Motherland and will to victory.

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. Deineki, GK Savitsky, NS Samokish, RR Franz; 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 War Artists named after M. B. Grekov (P. A. Krivonogov, B. M. Nemensky, etc.), in the sculpture of Y. J. Mikenas, E. V. Vuchetich, M. K Anikushina, A. P. Kibalnikov, V. E. Tsigalya and others.

In the art of the socialist countries 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, the major events of national history (K. Dunikovsky in Poland, J. Andreevich-Kuhn, G. A. Kos and P. Lubard in Yugoslavia, J. Salim in Iraq), the history of the liberation struggle of the peoples (M. Lingner in the GDR, R. Guttuso in Italy, D. Siqueiros in Mexico).

Vereshchagin artist battle war

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Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin (1842-1904) was an outstanding Russian battle painter, who gained world fame during his lifetime.

Vasily Vereshchagin was the author of a series of paintings that faithfully and with deep drama reflected the wars waged by Russia, captured the cruel everyday life of the war, the severity and heroism of the military cause. 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 his travels to the countries of the East. Traveling a lot, the artist mastered the genre of documentary and ethnographic painting.

Vasily Vereshchagin is one of those relatively few Russian artists of the second half of the 19th century who achieved world fame during their lifetime. His exhibitions have been repeatedly held in Western Europe and America. In the last ten years of his life alone, he had more than thirty personal exhibitions, half of them abroad. Often, his exhibitions were banned, often they were 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 to the exhibiting of his paintings than other Russian artists, introducing a lot of new things into this area: at his exhibitions, next to the paintings, exotic household items and weapons, collections of minerals and stuffed animals could be shown, music sounded - a piano, organ, harmonium. Indeed, exhibitions were perhaps the real environment for 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 might have been in the 18th and early 19th centuries, were their true haven, but public viewing, meeting with a large number of spectators, actively influencing the minds and hearts of the "masses". The most important feature of 19th century painting - the desire for the relevance of the plot, for the journalistic sharpness of the artist's position - manifested itself in Vereshchagin almost in its extreme form. The topicality of the plot was for him one of the main criteria of creativity. The artist saw his task in demonstrating various negative phenomena in the life of mankind that hinder progress: the horrors of war, injustices, obsolete morals. The artistic usefulness of a picture is therefore necessary for the full 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 goals is also an essential feature of Russian art of this time. And in this, as well as in the educational 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 Itinerants. He repeatedly motivated his refusal by the fact that his paintings should "say something", while other canvases would only distract attention from them, "... I developed my technique, I have a lot of interesting things to say and taught the society that there is no lie and falsehood; they will always go to watch me - why do I need company? " - not without pride he wrote to V.V. Stasov.

Vereshchagin's biography from its eventful side is quite picturesque. He was born into a poor landowner family, graduated, at the insistence of his parents, from the St. Petersburg Naval Cadet Corps. Not feeling the 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, noting this fact by burning cardboard approved by the authorities 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, defending his right to independence. Throwing out the Academy. The artist goes to the Caucasus. where he fills three thick albums with watercolors and drawings, then to Paris. There he studied for three years at the Jerome Academy. By the end of the sixties, he was already a fully formed artist.

Vereshchagin traveled a lot, participated in many wars, his fate was almost an adventure. "It is impossible to give the society a picture of a real, genuine war. - You cannot 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 ... You must not be afraid to sacrifice your blood, your meat, otherwise the paintings will be “not right,” the artist wrote. For the first time in hostilities he took part in 1867-1970, when he was assigned as a volunteer to the Russian army standing on the Russian-Chinese border. Participating in battles, Vereshchagin showed extraordinary courage and decisiveness, “on all sorties he was ahead,” as his contemporaries report, was often on the verge of death. from a whole detachment of steppe dwellers, which was later reflected in the films "Attack by surprise" and "Surrounded - persecuted." (which in the conditions of hostilities could cost him his life), he was awarded the St. George Cross for personal courage - and this was the only award he did not refuse in his entire life.

Based on Turkestan impressions, later, during his years in Munich, Vereshchagin created a series of paintings. Along with them, there are studies that differ in 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 paired ones - "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 piece of the Turkestan series - "The Apotheosis of War" (1871) - is endowed with the text: "Dedicated to all great conquerors, past, present and future." This gives the picture a pathos that goes beyond the description of a specific historical fact (originally 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 the subject of his depiction precisely because he fought war as a manifestation of inhumanity, unnaturalness, and evil. The position of the enlightener manifests itself in this quite consistently and convincingly. Vereshchagin himself was a courageous and courageous man. Taking part in hostilities, he more than once performed feats, daring sorties, for which he received awards. His courage 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, forced to destroy his works. Nevertheless, the artist, as a true enlightener, courageously continued his work, neglecting the danger. He possessed the true truth of the document. Vereshchagin did not invent a single detail from his head, not a single military situation, which he reproduced in the picture, was not invented. Everything was checked by him to the smallest detail, tested on his own experience. He bore a living, reliable testimony of the war. And this was precisely the guarantee of his success.

The very task of anti-war publicistic 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 for the difference between Vereshchagin and other realist artists of the second half of the 19th century, which predetermined the independence of his performances outside of traveling exhibitions. Vereshchagin worked on whole series of paintings and exhibited series at exhibitions. Work on each episode 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 at the end of the 60s and on the Russian-Turkish front in 1876-1877). Having collected extensive study material directly during the war, he retired in his studio (except Russia, Vereshchagin worked in Munich and Paris) and painted pictures, created series. After graduating from 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 principles of the show are completely subordinated to the implementation of the educational tasks set by the artist.

It is significant that large series, which consisted of several tens or even hundreds of exhibits, contained small series "within themselves". Such small series was a story about a clash of Russian soldiers and Turkestan troops, consisting of a dozen canvases, or a "triptych" "Everything is calm on Shipka" from a series of works dedicated to the Russian-Turkish war. Small episodes were a kind of "continuation stories". None of the Wanderers used such a technique. Vereshchagin, as it were, lacked one picture. He could not fit into one picture a long and complex story about some military event. Expanding the time frame, this technique freed Vereshchagin from the need to concentrate both the action and the psychological state of the characters in one situation. This was another reason for the artist's freedom from psychologism, which Kramskoy complained about.

Vereshchagin's activity developed very intensively for four decades. The artist was born in Cherepovets into a noble family in 1842, and died in 1904 during the Russian-Japanese war in Port Arthur during the explosion of the battleship "Petropavlovsk" - he died together with Admiral Makarov. Vereshchagin entered the St. Petersburg Academy in 1860, against the wishes of his parents. Prior to that, he studied at 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. Vereshchagin's independent activity began in the mid-60s. 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 Makharem in Shusha" (1865) and sketches and studies for the painting "Barge Haulers" (mid-60s). The last of the two themes is quite common in Russian art and literature. Vereshchagin's sketches reveal a number of works created before Repin's famous "Barge Haulers on the Volga". This series consists of paintings by P.O. Kovalevsky's "Tailpull 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 "Burlakov" was chosen in all these cases for critical purposes. The artists denounced the fact of a crime against people, likened to draft animals. In Vereshchagin, this tendency is expressed, perhaps, to a greater extent than in his contemporaries. His barge haulers are exhausted, exhausted; they can hardly 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, of their religious prejudices, goes hand in hand with criticism of social injustices. Vereshchagin, like any other sixties, used any excuse to denounce. In the "Religious Procession" one should highlight another feature characteristic of the 60s - ethnography, which gave a special color to the art of the enlightenment decade. In those years, genre painters went to different countries or to remote corners of Russia to capture scenes of folk life. Quite a large number of ethnographic works of this kind were reproduced in the "Art sheet" published by V.F. Timm in 1851-1862. Thus, Vereshchagin, already at the beginning of his artistic career, was able to synthesize in his work various features of contemporary art. To realize his positions, he used the language of a somewhat academicized realism that was generally accepted at that time in European painting. 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. Vereshchagin begins with the first (for example, "Opiumoedy", 1868), subordinating them to the tasks of social criticism. Later, the artist created several more paintings of this kind - "The 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 showing other tendencies. 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 posture of the hunter holding a beautiful falcon on his raised upward hand, the bright colorfulness of the canvas, which distinguishes it from the paintings of the 60s - drier and sparse in color, also testify to the artist's well-known admiration for the subject of the image. True, Vereshchagin's "protocol", which is also manifested in this work, constrains the artist's ability to reveal his relationship 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, objects of the image. But one is written on a historical, and the other on a modern plot. 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, harsh shadows falling on the floor and walls and as if nailing figures to the doorframe - everything is in some numbness and testifies to strength, power, tradition, ritual culture. Vereshchagin's manner - the careful finishing of every detail (carved door, clothes), equal in all parts, the intensive "coloring" of all objects turns out to be suitable for such a historical image of the medieval East. In the second picture, the genre-interpreted figures of two travelers who came to the doors of the mosque and have a rest near them, give the whole scene a tint of everyday life.

The basis of the Turkestan series is made up of battle compositions, which, like the two above-mentioned works, are combined with each other: sometimes in pairs ("After luck", "After failure" (both 1868), "At the fortress wall. Let them enter", "At the fortress wall . Entered "(both 1871)), and sometimes in large groups. In the center of the entire Turkestan exposition was a series of paintings entitled "The Barbarians", consistently showing the episode of the death of the soldiers of the Russian detachment, taken by surprise by the cavalry of the Bukhara Emir. As in cinema, Vereshchagin changes the scene and the depicted observers of the scene several times throughout the series. First, the Bukhara scouts are shown, who are looking out for the positions of the Russians, in order to then unexpectedly attack them. This picture gives a view from the point of view and from the position of these Bukhara scouts, almost coinciding with the point of view of the viewer of the picture. In the following pictures, the viewer becomes the only observer - he sees a scene of an unexpected attack by Bukhara cavalry and 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: the emir is presented with trophies - 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 wars and conquests of a grand scale that took place in the territory of Turkestan in the old days. At the same time, it is dedicated, as is evident 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 locations of action, different positions of the observer, and even the difference in time to which the shown scene belongs.

The plots chosen by Vereshchagin are extremely effective. They belong to the most acute situations, to the most "bloody" episodes, eloquently testifying to the horrors of war and the barbarism of the victors. The choice of episodes is one of the most important means by which an artist achieves the expressiveness and effectiveness of his paintings. The artist strives to use, first of all, what reality itself gives, and it is through this that he achieves an effect.

As for the psychological characteristics of the characters, this task is narrowed in Vereshchagin's paintings. A significant role in his paintings is played by the identification of the originality of figures and poses, which, as it were, replaces facial expressions. The artist captures poses and gestures with almost photographic accuracy. In this respect, the painting “The Mortally Wounded” (1873), which did not belong to the series "The Barbarians", but occupied an important place in the general Turkestan exposition, is especially characteristic. Unlike most other paintings, this close-up, as if next to the viewer, depicts a soldier 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 falling down dead. This mechanical dying run, the gesture of the hands holding the wound, are seen by the artist sharply, precisely 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 technique of "cropping" nature. But this "cropping" is done in such a way that in the very piece of reality captured by the artist (even if sometimes this scene was not in front of his eyes), there already exists a certain symmetry, or at least a general balance of parts. Indicative in this respect 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 "The Apotheosis of War", where the center is accentuated, marked by a pyramid of skulls, on the sides of which a landscape stretches out into the distance. Such a compositional system is reminiscent of the itinerant movement. However, Vereshchagin has a stronger element of nature, while the Wanderers still largely change nature, building a composition, and not just being content with the opportunity to find the composition "in the frame."

Differences between Vereshchagin and the Itinerants are also noticeable in the color interpretation of the paintings of the Turkestan series. In the 70s, Russian realistic painting parted with the cut-off system and turned to tonal in order to soon take the path of the plein air. Vereshchagin, who took the experience of not only Russian, but also French painting, perhaps earlier than others, turned 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 in gray and yellow colors that 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 achieve true plein air. He is more satisfied with the external effect: he likes to throw thick shadows from objects on the ground, creating the appearance of lighting; in the distance, he 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 life sketch "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, they are interpreted more freely and complexly according to the picturesque ratios of blue, white-pink, violet colors. This work testifies to the great possibilities of the artist in the field of plein air, which were not used in his future work. In 1874 Vereshchagin went to India. This trip was not related to the war. Rather, it was aroused by Vereshchagin's ethnographic interests. 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 plan, in which the artist's enlightenment plans were further developed. The Indian cycle thus split into two parts. One consisted of paintings, sketches, landscapes - that is, full-scale works. 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 just begun during these years, continued at the turn of the 70-80s (after the artist's return from the Balkan front), and finished after the second trip to India, which took place in 1882-1883.

It should be said right away that these historical paintings, with a few exceptions, did not work out for the artist. Having set himself the goal of portraying the history of "the seizure of India by the British" (as the artist himself put it), Vereshchagin turned out to be too instructive, demonstrative in the historical genre. In addition, his paintings seem to be composed, unwieldy. The only exception is the big picture - "The Suppression of the Indian Uprising by the British" (1884), which he included in another series - "The Trilogy of Executions", created in the mid-1980s. Vereshchagin in this picture depicted the rebellious Hindu sepoys, tied with their backs to the muzzles of cannons and awaiting a shot in the back. Here again a sharp plot is chosen, a moment is found that causes a shudder and horror in the viewer.

Among the natural works created in India, such sketches as "Kuli" (1875), which are soft in painting and deep in their interpretation of the figure and head of an Indian, stand out noticeably. 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 works of nature, other tendencies are felt - the desire for color richness, intensity and variegation. This trend was vividly expressed by such works as "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, to the white and red colors of architecture. The reflection of buildings in water almost completely preserves this contrast and only slightly softens the sharpness of the contours and clarity of 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 it. At the same time, this work cannot be denied in the effectiveness and accuracy of the transfer of nature. As for The Horseman in Jaipur, this sketch, more than any other work of the artist, reflected the influence of the painting of the French salon.

At the end of the 70s, the time for the creation of a series of paintings dedicated to the Russian-Turkish war falls. Perhaps, in these works Vereshchagin came closest to the Itinerants, who were experiencing their heyday in those years. Balkan paintings no longer form extensive series, like Turkestan paintings, and the emphasis is shifted to a separate painting. Only a few plots are realized in a few films. These include the triptych "Everything is calm on Shipka" (1878-1879), which depicts an episode of the death of a Russian soldier-sentry, gradually covered with snow. In other cases, even when combining pictures in a series, each of them looks more independent, containing the most important meaning. 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 pictures shows the courage and concentration of Russian soldiers, their readiness for battle. The second demonstrates the difficult fate of a soldier, the horrors of war. Both of them could exist separately. The same can be said about another "pair" of paintings - "The Winners" (1878-1879) and "The Vanquished" (1877-1879). The latter is one of the best works in the series. It depicts a regimental priest performing a requiem for the dead, whose mutilated corpses are strewn across a snow-covered field. Against the background of this field and the gray sky, two male figures are drawn. Their poses, gray, dull landscape, its desolation - all this creates a terrifying scene of the victims of the war, the senseless death of hundreds of people.

Compared with the pictures of the Turkestan cycle, the Balkan ones are increased in size. There is no catchy showiness in them; the color range is more modest, which is certainly explained not only by the evolution of the master, but also by the nature of the Balkans. The very subject of the image contributed to those changes that brought the artist closer to the itinerant genre. Vereshchagin paintings began to resemble in many ways the "choral" compositions of Myasoedov or Savitsky, while maintaining the same documentary, truthfulness and accuracy of the war. These features were most fully manifested in the painting "Shipka-Sheinovo. Skobelev pod Shipka" (1878-1879). In the background, the artist showed the solemn moment of the parade of troops on the occasion of the victory. The soldiers throw up their caps, greeting Skobelev, who rushes past on a white horse. The dead are depicted in the foreground, again with the same cruel truthfulness and unwavering precision. The bodies of the dead lie as it can only be in reality - some are twisted, others are strangely bent, and still others are with their hands up. Singing to the Russian soldier, Vereshchagin sympathizes with him with all his heart. The composition of the painting looks more thoughtfully constructed than in previous works. There is no complete symmetry in it, but there is a general balance of the sides.

The paths of creative development brought Vereshchagin closer and closer to the historical genre. Since the 1980s, the historical genre not only "equated" its rights with the genre of everyday life, but also got the opportunity to express such ideas that the genre of everyday life could not realize. The historical picture became a way for public thought to understand the historical originality of the people, the ways of Russia, and its future. This new tendency manifested itself most consistently in the work of Surikov. To a lesser extent, it touched other artists, in particular Vereshchagin. This was evidenced by 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 March, but at the same time the topic that worried the Russian society so much is hidden as it were by the "research" of the types of execution.

The last big 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 across Russia, selected models for his paintings, studied Russian people, their characters, and made numerous portraits-studies. In the series "Year 1812" the experience of a battle-painter was combined with an interest in the historical picture. True, in these last works Vereshchagin did not achieve noticeable success. Exaggerated monumentalism and a touch of props are felt in the large-sized canvases. The series is more interesting for its concept, choice of episodes, characterization of the role of peasant partisans, than artistic qualities. The striving for the spectacularity of the situations depicted, 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 previous one, built on effects, has not been replaced by a new one, based on the psychological relationships of the characters, on the techniques of plastic composition.

Conclusion

The 70s, the time of the creation of the Turkestan and Balkan series, were the period of the highest flowering in the work of Vereshchagin. At that time, the 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 of Russia, had not yet entered into contradiction with each other. But the further Vereshchagin moved away from the 70s, the more complex, despite the external success, the relationship between his work and the art of other Russian realist artists turned out to be.

Vereshchagin was an outstanding battle painter, I would even say one of the best in his time, and each of his works was a masterpiece, and he was one of the few artists who became famous during his lifetime. And on the one hand, it was good for a 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 is why his works were so realistic, because their the author experienced everything on himself and only after that he drew.

• ·1. Lebedev A. K. V. V. Vereshchagin. Life and creation. M., 1972.
• · 2. Lebedev A. K. V. V. Vereshchagin. Life and creation. - M., 1958.
• · 3. Vereshchagin V.V. Memoirs of the Artist's Son. - L .: Artist of the RSFSR, 1978
• ·4. Lebedev A.K., Solodovnikov A.V. Vasily Vasilievich Vereshchagin. - L .: Artist of the RSFSR, 1987
• 6. List of illustrations

The apotheosis of war. 1871<#"176" src="doc_zip2.jpg" />

Before the attack. Near Plevna. 1881 V.V. Vereshchagin

After the failure. 1868<#"justify">

In conquered Moscow (Arsonists or Shooting in the Kremlin). 1897-1898<#"164" src="doc_zip5.jpg" />

Night halt of the great army. 1896-1897<#"182" src="doc_zip6.jpg" />

With weapons in hand - shoot. 1887-1895 V.V. Vereshchagin

Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin stands out among Russian artists of the second half of the 19th century for his unusual fate and activities. You look at his paintings, and it seems as if you have been on a fascinating journey, learned a lot of new and interesting things. This happened before at Vereshchagin's exhibitions, at which the artist showed not only paintings brought from trips to foreign countries and unfamiliar regions of Russia, but also the richest collections of clothing, weapons, household items and folk art. A visitor to his exhibitions seemed to find himself in a previously unknown Turkestan. The floors are covered with Turkestan carpets, household items are placed along the walls, weapons are on the walls, and the nature of the country, its people, architecture, scenes of everyday life, which reveal the customs and mores, the historical past and present of this region, are presented in the paintings and sketches.

VV Vereshchagin was born and spent his childhood in the small town of Cherepovets. His father predicted a naval career for his son and sent him to study at the St. Petersburg Naval Corps. But the young Vereshchagin was not attracted by naval science. After graduating from the naval corps, he retired, irrevocably breaking with the naval service. Vereshchagin devoted all his free time to art. He first entered the drawing school of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, and then, in 1860, at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, where he studied for several years. However, he did not graduate from the Academy. Imitative academic art was not to his liking. Vereshchagin finished his art education in Paris. However, he wanted something new, unusual, and at the first opportunity he went on a trip to the Caucasus, where he began to paint "free".

Subsequently, all his life Vereshchagin followed the rule - not to sit still, but to constantly get acquainted with life in different parts of the world, to look for new themes and new images. He visited India, traveled to America, Cuba, the Philippines and Japan.

A huge store of life impressions served as the basis for Vereshchagin's multifaceted and all-round creativity. He painted portraits, landscapes, still lifes, and most importantly, he became a brilliant master of battle painting. In this genre of painting, Vereshchagin made a real revolution. The battle paintings created before him were created to order to decorate rich living rooms and were spectacular battles, glorifying the generals and proclaiming the war as a heroic epic.

Vereshchagin was the first among battle painters to show that war is, first of all, terrible injuries, cold, hunger, cruel despair and death. The artist showed in his works the ruthless essence of the war, which he himself witnessed. He had no equal in Russian art in terms of the power of depicting the terrible truth of war and the passion with which he debunked it.

Vereshchagin made battle painting not only realistic, but also completely new in content. He showed the main hero of the war not commanders and generals, but ordinary soldiers, their life, often depicted not the battle itself, but before or after the battle.

Having spent his whole life in wanderings, idle for 12-14 hours at the easel, Vereshchagin died with a brush in his hand, making sketches from nature at the scene of hostilities. As soon as the Russo-Japanese War broke out in 1904, the sixty-two-year-old artist set out for the Far East. Here he wrote on the battleship "Petropavlovsk", which was blown up by a Japanese mine. So, at work, the life of a wonderful artist ended.

A colorful and romantic scene of everyday life that Vereshchagin observed in Turkestan, along with others, showing the poverty and powerlessness of the poor.

The majestic historical past could not fail to interest Vereshchagin.

Of great interest are the uniforms of Indian warriors, a luxurious carpet cape on a horse.

In the paintings of Vereshchagin, the great past of India came to life: ancient temples, luxurious palaces, majestic tombs.

Fascinated by the beautiful Taj Mahal mausoleum, built by the Great Mogul Shah Jahan on the grave of his beloved wife, Vereshchagin creates an amazingly colorful canvas. The building, magical in its beauty, harmonizes in the picture with the same beautiful southern nature. "There is nothing in Europe that can surpass the Taj, it is a place that breathes solemn tranquility," wrote Vereshchagin, full of admiration.

The scene preceding the assault is full of languid anticipation, tense alertness. A large detachment of Russian soldiers froze at the massive battlements of the fortress wall. The first ranks crouched against the gap in the wall, rifles at the ready, awaiting an attack. The officer, walking quietly towards the breach, makes a sign to be silent with his hand. The soldiers are silent, the drum is silent, the light trees with birds' nests are motionless. Silence reigns in the fortress, but the silence is deceiving, tense, ready to burst into battle every minute. The tension is felt in the dark wall, in the brightly lit group of soldiers, in their motionless poses, in their eyes, looking into the face of death. All the simplicity of the Russian man and the greatness of his soul, not ostentatious, but true courage, revealed to Vereshchagin precisely at such a moment of mortal danger, agonizing inaction, tense expectation. This true humble heroism and steadfastness of the Russian soldier are the main content of the picture. Not how people fight, but how they behave in war, how they manifest themselves in difficult trials, what aspects of their souls are revealed.

This is a terrible image of death, sounding a harsh condemnation of war and a formidable warning.

The painting depicting a pile of human skulls in a scorched desert is based on a real historical fact. "Timur or Tamerlane, who flooded all of Asia and part of Europe with blood and is now considered a great saint among all Central Asian Mohammedans, erected similar monuments to his greatness everywhere."

Horror is evoked by the fantastic pyramid of skulls bleached by the sun and winds. This is all that remains of the people who once lived here and were slain, destroyed by the war. From the city that was spreading here, only ruins remained, the trees withered from the heat without the departure of a human hand. There, where life flourished before, a dead desert arose. Only the black crow, the gloomy guest of death, circles over the skulls, looking for food. Empty and dead where the war took place. And the creepy pyramid of skulls - with black holes of dead eye sockets, with an eerie grin of their mouths - under the serene peaceful sky acts as a terrible symbol of war, bringing death, desolation, death.

Created during the bloody Franco-Prussian war, this historical picture became consonant with the mood of its turbulent time. She reminded people of the innumerable calamities that war brings with it. Vereshchagin made an inscription to the title of the painting: "Dedicated to all the great conquerors, past, present and future."

The picture is based on the scene seen by Vereshchagin in the war. The courtyard of the Samarkand fortress is depicted. In the sultry haze, the figures of soldiers with rifles pointed at the wall can be seen. Life goes on as usual, and none of those who guard the citadel know whether a stray bullet will strike the enemy or pass it. But then death suddenly overtook the soldier. Just a minute ago, like his comrades, he stood with a rifle at the ready, and now, convulsively grabbing his side, in a fit of fear and despair, rushed to run. His uncertain run, the sharp angular silhouette of the figure, the tilt of the falling body, the small dark shadow at his feet convincingly show that he is condemned to death. Another minute will pass - another, and he will collapse to the ground next to other lifeless bodies.

And again in the citadel everything will go as before, again the besieged in the fortress will stand guard, and who knows, maybe again the enemy's well-aimed bullet will unexpectedly strike one of them. A bitter reflection on the meaninglessness of these sacrifices and their inevitability permeates the picture.

Capture. the enslavement and robbery of India caused the artist a feeling of deep indignation, which made him paint this picture.

Before us is an ominous picture of execution - shooting from cannons. Sun-scorched earth, cloudless sky. In the foreground is a tall, white-bearded old man, tied to a gun. His head is thrown back, his dead lips are half-open, his weakening legs are bent. Mental suffering and horror weakened him. For this old man, as well as for all others standing in the same row with him, it is not physical death that is terrible, but an outrage on the human body, which will be torn apart by a cannon shell. This is a picture of the brutal truth, this is a harsh accusation of the criminal colonial regime.

With the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war, Vereshchagin went to the places of hostilities. He took part in all the decisive battles, was during the famous assault on Plevna, made the winter transition through the Balkans, took part in the battle at Sheinovo, which was the decisive outcome of the war.

Many thousands of lives were ruined by the tsarist officers in this war. A continuous forest of crosses stretched across the fields of lost battles. The storming of Plevna was a grandiose failure, not prepared by the command and carried out only in honor of the tsar's birthday. This assault was worth the countless human deaths that took place in front of the king, who calmly watched all this from the so-called "snack bar" of the mountain, where at that time he was feasting with his retinue. “I cannot express the severity of the impression,” wrote Vereshchagin, “these are solid masses of crosses ... Everywhere are heaps of fragments of grenades, bones of soldiers forgotten during burial. Only on one mountain there are no human bones, no pieces of cast iron, but still there corks and shards of champagne bottles are lying around ... "