V.V.Vereshschagin: Artist at War - Tapa dura

V.V. Vereshchagin, the most popular and famous Russian artist in Western Europe and America in the last quarter of the 19th century, dedicated his life and art to opposing violence. Yet today his personal legacy of peace is forgotten. This biography tells the story of Vereshchagin's courage and tenacity in his struggle against the misery of war. Using historical accounts and the artist's own writings, Barooshian examines Vereshchagin's artistic depiction of war (both historic and contemporary), showing how it underwent a radical transformation in life as well as in art, as it matured. He explores the role that war played in the 19th-century idea of progress, and devotes one chapter to the artist's representation of Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812. To Vereshchagin and others of the intelligentsia, Russian colonial expansion raised ethical dilemmas; their art was frequently at cross-purposes with the state. Barooshian notes the parallels in this regard between Vereshchagin's and Tolstoy's visions of history. While this is a book for scholars of history, politics and art, general readers as well should discover an absorbing personal story of Vereshchagin's travels, experiences in war, continual problems with money and the Russian autocracy, and dealings with patrons and commercial agents.