26.10.1842 – 13.04.1904

In 2017, 175 years since the birth of Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin are celebrated.

Painter, a writer, one of the most famous painters, was born in the family of the leader of the Cherepovets nobility. At the age of 9, Vasily, like his brothers, was enrolled in the Naval Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg. After graduation Vasily Vereshchagin did not last long and retired to enter the Academy of Arts. After three years of training, he leaves for the Caucasus, and then continues his education in Paris. Vereshchagin completed his education at the Academy only in 1866.

Vasily Vereshchagin traveled a lot both around the world and across Russia. He was extremely efficient, from under his brush came a huge number of paintings. In 1901, Vereshchagin was nominated for the first Nobel Peace Prize as a true “war fighter”.

Vasily Vasilevich Vereshchagin knew firsthand what war was, and saw its reverse side. On his canvases there are no parades and heroic scenes, he wrote invariable companions of armed conflicts: destruction, suffering and horror.

One of the most famous paintings of the artist is the painting “The Apotheosis of War”, which can be considered the most vivid and expressive exposers of the horrors of the war. Although it was created under the impression of the primitive cruelty of the Eastern conquerors, it does not have a narrow focus – it is addressed to everyone who has started and is starting wars. It is not for nothing that the author himself left an inscription on the canvas frame indicating that the painting is dedicated to the conquerors of the past, present and future.

With the beginning of the Russo-Japanese war, the artist found himself in the active fleet and tragically died March 31, 1904, when the battleship “Petropavlovsk”, on which he was, was blown up on a mine.