One of my not so ephemeral obsessions is with Russian history, literature, and art, particularly from the 19th Century.
One of my favorites from this period is Vasily Vereschagin (1842-1904). Vereschagin's work mainly focused on war. Vereschagin, who saw firsthand the horrors or war, was controversial in his day for the graphic depictions of battle, and his paintings unglamorous attitude towards war and its effect on the men who fought.
During the First Sino-Japanese War Vereschagin was aboard the Russian flagship the Petropavlovsk which, while entering the Yellow Sea struck a mine and nearly everyone on board, including Vereschagin, went down.
Here are a couple of my favorite paintings of his:
To see more check out this great art site:
www.abcgallery.com
