Maria Santi:
Evil Genius Automatic translate

"… the fire was so strong that, I confess, I nodded every minute and bowed my head from whistling bullets, grenades, and time and bombs flying from Turkish batteries over the mountain."

(c) Vasily Vereshchagin on the work on the sketch

In his youth, barely recovering from his wounds, Vereshchagin galloped into the war zone near Plevna to look for his brother’s body. But there were situations in which even he, one of the few world-famous Russian artists, was powerless. Our hero was both a spy and a friend of the president. But, to put it mildly, he did not value his father very much when he complained about poverty in the press and asked the emperor for money on the occasion of the death of his youngest son. The painter was simply indignant. He was disgraced by a well-fed, servant-living parent who enjoyed the attention of the media only because Vasily was a famous artist. However, after the death of his father, Vereshchagin nibbled himself with reproaches.

Contrary to popular belief, Vereshchagin wrote not only war. He just was especially strong in the battle genre. Vasily Vasilievich tried to scandalize the European public with paintings of the gospel cycle, which depicted the younger brothers of Jesus - the children of Joseph and Mary.

Good fanatics poured acid on her. But the photograph was preserved.

Vereshchagin reveled in praise and could stop meeting because of criticism. And there were many. The young artist destroyed several of his paintings after they were denounced by the court. Just cut out of frames and burned.

President Theodore Roosevelt Vereshchagin called his personal friend. The artist even traveled once again to Cuba when Roosevelt pointed out to him that the foliage in the picture was not like Cuban.

The artist did not have close friends. He avoided parties. Once he simply didn’t go to Sklifosovsky who had come to visit. In the life of Vereshchagin there were a wife, children and constant concern for the sale of paintings. The colossal expenses for travel and the organization of exhibitions did not immediately pay off. Either American producers cheated, then the Russian government refused to buy paintings, then Tretyakov reduced the price by almost half.

Vereshchagin loved traveling. He was as corrosive an ethnographer as Artemy Lebedev. He depicted not what people wanted to boast of, but the facts of real life.

For example, in Uzbekistan, groups of a dozen well-to-do owners kept cute bachelors. Bache was worshiped, given gifts, dressed up and painted like a girl. Parents received a generous reward for each season.

At age 20, a young man was removed from the pedestal and returned to poverty. There, he, pampered, not accustomed to work and caring for loved ones, was usually kicked out of the house. Former bachs were homeless, smoking opium.

One of the British military officials said that the "Suppression of the Indian uprising by the British" dishonors the wall on which it hangs. And during the exhibition, noble old spouses approached the artist. Her husband, a former military officer, proudly told me that it was he who came up with the idea of such execution.

Vereshchagin. Holy Family, 1884-1885.

Vereshchagin. Selling a slave child, 1872.

Vereshchagin. The Suppression of the Indian Rebellion by the British, 1884.

It is unlikely that most people will like his tough approach. But each expert can see the class.

Who wants to hear even more stories from the author of the article, come to the lecture-discussion "Pirates, robbers and adventurers in art" on Monday, February 23 at 19-00. The price and venue can be found in the group http://fb.com/proiskusstvo and by phone +7 (968) 434-24-61.