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VERESHCHAGIN, VASSILI VASSILIEVICH (1...

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 1021 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VERESHCHAGIN, VASSILI VASSILIEVICH (1842-1904) , See also:Russian artist and traveller, was See also:born at Tcherepovets, in the See also:government of See also:Novgorod, on the 26th of See also:October 1842. His See also:father was a Russian landowner of See also:noble See also:birth, and from his See also:mother he inherited Tatar See also:blood. When he was eight years old he was sent to Tsarskoe Selo to enter the See also:Alexander See also:cadet See also:corps, and three years later he entered the See also:naval school at St See also:Petersburg, making his first voyage in 1858. He graduated first in the See also:list from the naval school, but See also:left the service immediately to begin the study of See also:drawing in See also:earnest. He won a See also:medal two years later, in 1863, from the St Petersburg See also:Academy for his " Ulysses slaying the Suitors." In 1864 he proceeded to See also:Paris, where he studied under Ger6me, though he dissented widely from his See also:master's methods. In the See also:Salon of 1866 he exhibited a drawing of " See also:Doukhobors chanting their See also:Psalms," and in the next See also:year he accompanied See also:General See also:Kauffmann's expedition to See also:Turkestan, his military service at the See also:siege of See also:Samarkand procuring for him the See also:cross of St See also:George. He was an indefatigable traveller--in Turkestan in 1869, the Himalayas, See also:India and See also:Tibet in 1873, and again in India in 1884. After a See also:period of hard See also:work in Paris and See also:Munich he exhibited some of his Turkestan pictures in St Petersburg in 1894, among them two which were afterwards suppressed on the representations of Russian soldiers— " The See also:Apotheosis of See also:War," a See also:pyramid of skulls dedicated " to all conquerors, past, See also:present and to come," and " Left Behind," the picture of a dying soldier deserted by his See also:fellows. Vereshchagin was with the Russian See also:army during the See also:Turkish See also:campaign of 1877; he was present at the See also:crossing of the Shipka Pass and at the siege of See also:Plevna, where his See also:brother was killed; and he was dangerously wounded during the preparations for the crossing of the See also:Danube near See also:Rustchuk. At the conclusion of the war he acted as secretary to General Skobelev at See also:San Stefano. 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 See also:peace by a See also:representation of the horrors of war—attracted a large See also:section of the public not usually interested in See also:art to the See also:series of exhibitions of his pictures in Paris in 1881 and subsequently in See also:London, See also:Berlin, See also:Dresden, See also:Vienna and other cities.

He aroused much controversy by his series of three-pictures of a See also:

Roman See also:execution (the Crucifixion), of sepoys blown from the guns in India, and of the execution of Nihilists in St Petersburg. A See also:journey in See also:Syria and See also:Palestine in 1884 furnished him with an equally discussed set of subjects from the New Testament. The " 1812 " series on See also:Napoleon's Russian campaign, on which he also wrcte a See also:book, seem to have been inspired by Tolstoi's War and Peace, and were painted in 1893 at See also:Moscow, where the artist eventuallysettled. Vereshchagin was in the Far See also:East during the Chino-See also:Japanese War, with the See also:American troops in the Philippines, and with the Russian troops in See also:Manchuria. He perished in the sinking of the Russian See also:flagship, " See also:Petropavlovsk," on the 13th of See also:April 1904. His last work, a picture of a See also:council of war presided over by See also:Admiral Makaroff, was recovered almost uninjured. See E. Zabel, " Wereschtschagin " (1900), in Knackfuss's Kunstlermonographien (See also:Bielefeld and See also:Leipzig). The finest collection of his pictures is in the Tretiakov See also:gallery in Moscow.

End of Article: VERESHCHAGIN, VASSILI VASSILIEVICH (1842-1904)

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