Vasiliy Vasilyevich Vereshchagin: Albom Reproduktsii
Moskva: Gos. Izd. Izobr. Iskusstva, 1954. Folio. 8-page stapled paper booklet plus 20 plates, each on a separate sheet; all in a folio of bronze cloth/boards with Cyrillic lettering and a bw image of the artist tipped on. Contents VG and clean. Folio covers sound with no major flaws but with light general wear of corner bumping and tanning to inside paper lining. Item #146747
Text in Russian. Includes a preliminary essay about the life and work of this famous Russian war-time artist. The list of plates calls for 21, but only 20 (each numbered) are included. Number 21, however, is described as "ne okonchen", or "unfinished" and may simply not have been included in the original set. Half of the plates are in full color and half are bw. Two of the plates, while numbered consecutively, are listed in reverse order. Beautiful plates that make you feel you could simply step into the scenes. (These scenes all are from the Turkestan campaign. When the works returned from their highly successful European tour, so many Russians wanted to view the scenes that the crowds were unmanageable, and 30,000 copies of the catalogue were sold in the first week. The images, however, were very graphic and realistic and "revealed a savagery which had not been seen by civilians before. It was not clear who was more savage: the Russian tropps or their Asiatic opponents." One reviewer commented, "We see a violence that could not be French or even from the Balkans: it is half-barbarian and semi-Asiatic - it is a Russian violence." Vereshchagin's desire was not to draw this kind of conslusion of the campaign or the Russian military, but it was the first time the Asian tribesmen were portrayed as people - human beings - and this triggered a large protest against the war, with an enormous resulting controversy in which the paintings were condemned and Vershchagin was exiled in Western Europe, to avoid arrest in Russia. His European career was highly successful, but he always yearned to return to Russia, which he did, when he was invited to join in the war against Japan, again as the wartime artist. He was killed in 1904 when a bom sank the ship on which he was working.) - quoted/paraphrased from Orlando Figes's stellar book about Russian culture, Natasha's Dance. A scarce folio.
Price: $250.00