Vereshchagin showed the true face of war. You have probably seen his most famous painting - ‘The Apotheosis of War’, which depicts a heap of human skulls. The author’s inscription says: ‘To all great conquerors, past, present and to come.’
Even ‘The Apotheosis of War’ doesn’t strike the imagination quite like this painting. In it, the battle has just finished, and a priest gives last rites to the soldiers who have just died… and there’s a great multitude of them.
Vereshchagin traveled across Central Asia a lot and he brought his entire ‘Turkestan Series’ with him from there. Legends spread about the atrocities that were happening there in the 19th century. The sight of these cutthroats, looking at their “trophy” with indifference, speaks for itself.
This is the power of art. Because of this incredibly emotional painting by Repin, the entire country believed that the historical myth about Ivan the Terrible murdering his own son was the honest truth.
This is another art fantasy about the atrocities of Ivan the Terrible. It’s especially unexpected to see such a painting from Mikhail Klodt, otherwise known for his idyllic landscapes.
Koshchey the Immortal kidnaps beautiful young maidens and locks them up in his dark kingdom. This character from Russian fairy tales visits all children in their nightmares. He’s especially creepy in Vasnetsov’s portrayal.
Realist Perov is famous for his chilling and naturalistic scenes from the lives of regular people. One of his most famous paintings is ‘Troika’, where children – apprentice workers – carry a giant barrel with water like burlaks. ‘The Last Journey’, meanwhile, is a painting filled with anguish. A mother with her two children, alone, lonely in their grief, are taking a coffin with their deceased husband/father to the cemetery.
This giant 4-by-6-meter painting depicts true horror. People see the city crumbling and attempt to run away from the erupting volcano. The viewer, studying their fear in the most minute details, will realize that no one in this painting will escape.
This is one of the most striking paintings about World War II. In the background, we see a plane shrinking into the distance, leaving the once peaceful landscape it just destroyed. The dead shepherd boy and his dog howling near him especially influence the perception of the viewer.
A whole range of artworks was painted about one of the most terrifying episodes of World War II – the Siege of Leningrad. One of the most famous and saddest narratives involves people who, in the incredible cold, are pulling sleds with water, firewood… or the bodies of their deceased relatives.
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