Vereschagin Petr

View on Strelka of Vasilievskyi island 35х70 сm, oil on canvas, 1863
About work

Represented in the collection, “View on Strelka of Vasilievskyi island” is a view on the biggest island in the delta of Neva River. Strelka Vasilyevskogo island is the eastern extremity of the Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg it is one of the most fascinating architectural ensembles of the city, an example of harmony between architecture of the city and the landscape banks of Neva. Colorful life of the urban lower against the backdrop of the majestic Russian architecture was a signature card of the artist’s paintings, it is through this genre of traditional academic landscapes of P. Vereschagin acquired a unique style.

Read more about the work Collapse

Vereschagin Petr Petrovich
(1834, Perm – 1886, St.Petersburg)

Petr Petrovich Vereschagin was bom on 14th of January in 1834 in Perm, in the family of the painter-craftsman Peter Prokofievich Vereschagin. Younger brothers – Vasiliy and Mitrofan – together with Petr, being adolescents were learning to craft. The first painting lessons brothers received from their father. In 1843 their father died, and grandfather on the mother the painter and iconographer I. Babin become as their mentor. On the advice of the artist A. Orlov brothers entered the Academy of Arts. Elder brother – Peter – has entered the Academy of Arts in 1858, somewhat later than his brothers. He chose landscape painting as his specialty, he studied at the class of landscape of Socrat Vorobiev, the famous painter, who has lived many years in Italy.

Since 1866 P. Vereschagin taught painting, drawing and calligraphy in the city Lyutsin in Vilenskaya province. In 1867 for the paintings “View of Dinaburg”, “The market in Nizhny Novgorod” and “View of the city from Lyutsin’s neighborhoods, he was awarded with the rank of second-degree class artist, and in 1868 – for the paintings “Jumbling market in Moscow” and “View of the Kremlin ”- the title of the first class degree artist. In 1867 the artist entered the Society of Arts lovers. In early 1870s Vereschagin created some views of St. Petersburg’s buildings and a series of the Crimean landscapes. In 1873 the Academy awarded him with the title of academician of landscape painting for the painting “A general view of Sevastopol”, referring to the Crimean cycle, as well as for landscapes paintings “Mezhigorskaya factory near Kiev”, “View of Kiev”,”Nizhny Novgorod”, “The market in Nizhny Novgorod” “View of Mezhigorie” and “View of the Kremlin in Moscow.”

During the Russian-Turkish war in 1877-1878 the artist was in the Balkans with the Russian troops and captured all traversed cities and areas, wrote the view of city Sistovo, as well as a series of the Danube landscapes. According to the collected materials in P. Vereschagin has created the large panorama on a military theme – “The bombardment of the fortress Ruschuk”. In the late 1870’s – early 1880’s the artist appealed to the architecture of the northern capital, and wrote several views of Petersburg. In this period the artist has created numerous “portraits” of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm, Tiflis, Baku, Pskov, Vladimir, Kazan, Vyborg and other Russian cities.

Individual feature of master’s paintings was the attention to vies of traditional Russian cities. He became one of the first landscape painters able to see the identity of Mother Nature and architecture, to change the traditionally dismissive attitude towards them. P. Vereschagin managed to convey to the audience not only breathtaking views of St. Petersburg and Moscow, but also the identity of Russian province, and the diversity of Russian nature.

Active creative period of P. Vereschagin was about three decades of intense and fruitful work, with spectacular level of his works has always remained very high. He remains one of the few Russian artists, whose works are not aware of radical fallings, but the quality and craftsmanship only grow from year to year. The artist was able to find his own style in one of the most traditional academic genres. Of course, in beautiful ways, and used light and color effects, he strictly followed his great predecessors. But only P. Vereschagin could radically change the attitude of spectators to the native Russian landscape. His original and well-recognizable “portraits” of cities and localities, full with close to Russian hearts household details, on the right have won wide popularity.

The artist has happy fate – he was recognized early during life and not forgotten after his death. In many expositions of famous museums you can find pictures of P. Vereschagin.

Read more about the author Collapse