Franz Roubaud (1856-1928) was the son of a French bookseller who built his life in Russia. He went down in history as a classic battle painter and creator of one of the most majestic panoramas in the world — ‘The Battle of Borodino’. In his lifetime, the artist created more than two hundred monumental paintings. 

Before embarking on The Capture of Akhulgo on the 22nd of August, 1839, the artist travelled extensively in the Caucasus. The local places soon became one of Roubaud”s favorite picture themes. He carefully studied the area where the main events had taken place collecting eyewitness accounts of those who had been directly involved in the events. 

Akhulgo Aul sat on a huge steep cliff, which is what Roubaud depicted in his work. As the aul was virtually inaccessible, Shamil used it as his main stronghold. A garrison of the most fanatical imam followers protected Akhulgo. However, the Russian troops managed, in June 1839, to get close to the village, seizing it by the end of the summer. A mere five thousand hill-men resisted the thirteen-thousand-strong tsarist army; but the steep cliffs and a deep narrow gorge were on their side. It was precisely this landscape that Roubaud depicted.

This work reflects the skill of a true realist — something Roubaud was famous for. The artist was a master of drawing techniques, able to get the viewers focus on the smallest details of the battle. He depicted the tsarist infantry at the moment when it was crossing the bridge across the gorge. A fierce battle was raging in the village — at Akhulgo, the tsarist troops lost more than 500 people and Shamil — almost his entire army.

In 1896, Roubaud showed his work at the Nizhny Novgorod All-Russia Art and Industry Exhibition, where a separate building had to be built for it. The work cost the artist 35,000 rubles. To pay off the creditors, he asked the Emperor Nicholas II to purchase the painting for 15,000 rubles. Soon it was bought by the War Ministry, but the panorama”s wanderings did not end there. Up to 1924, it was stored in the Artillery History Museum in St. Petersburg, where it was badly damaged during the flood. As late as 1928, the work was handed over to the Dagestan Museum of Local Lore with only the painting”s fragments surviving today.