Tanais Gallery
Vasily Vereshchagin. After good luck.
1868.
Oil on canvas. 47 x 39.
The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.
In 1867, Vereshchagin volunteered for service in the Russian army in Turkestan (a region encompassing parts of present-day Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) and participated in military actions against the Emir of Bukhara. For his bravery in the defense of Samarkand he was awarded the highest military decoration of Russia: the Order of St. George. His ‘Turkestan series,’ painted on the basis of sketches and studies done during the war, also brought him considerable fame and recognition in the Russian upper class. The paintings “After good luck”, “Rejoicing” and “Presenting the Trophies”, in which Muslims brandish the severed heads of the Russian soldiers, are the most famous in the series.
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