3-053-716 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Basil Wereschagin, the Russian artist, 1873. 'Basil Wereschagin...was born in 1842...Having completed the ordinary studies at the Naval School of St. Petersburg, which he quitted as first scholar, he became a cadet of the Marines. In 1859, while on active service, he visited Copenhagen, Bordeaux, Portsmouth, and other ports of Western Europe. From Portsmouth he came to London, and so gained his first acquaintance with the English people. In 1860 he was promoted to the rank of an officer, but thereupon left the service, being desirous to gratify his taste for drawing. For this he had shown a disposition from early childhood, when he used to fill whole sheets of paper with his first artistic efforts. He had already for two years attended the Academy of Fine Arts at St. Petersburg, where, after leaving the service, he remained three years more. Having won the silver medal there and established his reputation as an artist, he quitted the routine course of academical work and started, in 1863, on his travels through the Caucasus. During his travels in the region of the Caucasus and Trans-Caucasia he frequently took an active part in the busy, stirring scenes around him. He returned with his albums filled with vivid and faithful sketches'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.