Composition of Vereshchagin’s painting “The End of the Battle of Borodino”


This picture Vereshchagin painted in the period from 1899 to 1900. The name itself, tells us about the content of this work. The Battle of Borodino is over. The artist, without fear and doubt, strives to recreate the battle picture with maximum realism. To do this, he even had to study military maps, engravings, drawings, and other literature. As a result, the artist creates a harmonious picture.

The canvas depicts the soldiers of the French army, who glorify their emperor. At first glance, the picture may seem like a mush of weapons, uniforms, ammunition mixed with human bodies. If you look closely, you can see that some of this “porridge” is alive, they are wounded and wait for them to be helped. Their faces are twisted with a pain of agony, but hardly anyone will hear their pleas for help. The result of the civil war of 1812 was the death of 80,000 people. And Vereshchagin, in my opinion, gives his vision of this problem, as if hinting to us that the war is a great evil, that the death of so many people is only a game of ambitious Napoleon. The painting is painted in bright colors, to convey the full scale of the tragedy, the artist uses dark and red colors.

Looking at the picture, I felt the smell of gunpowder for a moment. I heard the whistling of bullets and shots. The worst thing was when I realized that somewhere people were asking for help, but I do not know how to help a mortally wounded soldier. It’s a shame that these people were hurt for nothing, but their homes are waiting, mother, wives and children. In war everyone is equal, and young guys are about 20 years old and older men and old people. The war spares no one

The picture of this artist makes you think about the value of your life. No matter how rich your family lives, the main thing is that they are all alive and well. And the main thing is that friends would be faithful and in a difficult situation not abandoned, but helped.


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Composition of Vereshchagin’s painting “The End of the Battle of Borodino”