[Click on pics for full size]
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| Caravan of Yaks loaded with Salt |
Last week I turned in edits for a short fantasy story that was set in "Russian Turkestan" - imperial Central Asia in the 19th century. It was inspired by my Silk Road travels of course, but in the course of my research I came across Russian artist
Vasily Vereshchagin (1842-1904) and thought I'd share some of his pictures here because he's quite brilliant, was extremely controversial in his lifetime, and deserves to be better known.
He painted some places I've been myself! (Only with more severed heads)
He's known primarily as a war artist, and he traveled extensively with Russian troops during the Russo-Turkish and Russo-Japanese wars, being both wounded and decorated for his courage (and in fact he eventually died when his ship hit a mine).
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| At the Fortress Wall |
But his emphasis was very much on the horrors of war and he was banned and derided all across Europe for his uncompromising portrayals of just how shitty the military life was...
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| All Is Quiet - tryptych |
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| Night Halt of the Great Army |
... sometimes literally:
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| Russian Camp in Turkestan |
He painted aftermaths of battles, POW corpses, wounded soldiers being abandoned to the crows, and soldiers dying in hospital.
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| After the Attack |
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| Defeated: Memorial Service |
This is his most notorious painting,
The Apotheosis of War, which he dedicated "to all conquerors, past, present and to come":
War-paintings aside though,Vereshchagin was an extraordinary recorder of his travels across Asia. He visited India, the Himalayas, Tibet, Siberia, China, Japan, Cuba, the Phillippines, Palestine and Syria. He loved painting the landscapes:
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| Glacier on the road from Kashmir to Ladakh |
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| Mount Kazbek |
the people:
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| Residents of Western Tibet |
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| Chorus of Dervishes, Tashkent |
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| Parsee Priest, Bombay |
the ruins;
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| The Gur-Emir Mausoleum, Samarkand |
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| Ruins in Chuguchak |
the temples
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| Entrance to the Temple of Niko |
and OMG the costumes:
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| Buddiskogo Lama |
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| Warrior of Jaipur |
If you want to look through (many) more of his paintings there's a good gallery
HERE
