The permanent exhibition of the Nizhny Tagil Museum of Fine Arts includes the painting “Cape Fiolent near Sevastopol” by the famous Russian artist Vasily Vereshchagin.
For a long time, this painting was listed in the museum’s collection simply as a landscape. It amazes the viewer with its rich colors, transparent and bright sunlight, verisimilitude, and exquisite precision. The artist perfectly captured the environment: the cliffs glowing under the searing sun, the trees growing on the slope, the shining sky, and the tender azure sea with a small wave approaching the shore and the almost ethereal smoke of a steamer. The rough red and brown cliffs painted with precise brush strokes are contrasted against the smooth sea surface. Most importantly, the true-to-life depiction of the landscape does not cover for lack of substance: Vasily Vereshchagin was sensitive to the unique beauty of nature and used this majestic view to convey the touch of eternity, creating an epic masterpiece.
Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin was born in Cherepovets. His father was a landowner and marshal of nobility. The future artist graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg where he became interested in drawing. He stayed in the Russian capital to study fine arts and later entered the Academy of Arts in Paris. As a young man, he was already fond of traveling and “learning to paint in freedom, inspired by exciting subjects.” Throughout his life, the artist visited India, Syria, Palestine, the Philippines, Cuba, the United States, Japan, various regions of the Russian Empire, Central Asia, and the Balkan Peninsula. Wherever he went, he was always in the thick of things and often ended up being a participant of military action rather than an outside observer. He depicted military conflicts and their consequences, “and believed that his paintings, reflecting the atrocities of war, could make a strong enough impression on the viewer only if the artist had experienced everything firsthand.”
The artist participated in many battles. In
1867–1869, he volunteered to serve in the border troops of Russian Turkestan.
In 1868, his bravery and courage during the defense of Samarkand were
recognized with the Order of St. George, 4thclass. He also served
in the army during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 when he was seriously
wounded. In 1904, as a true soldier of his country, Vasily Vereshchagin joined
the army during the Russo-Japanese War. He was killed aboard the Petropavlovsk
battleship that struck a mine and sank.
