An unknown painting by Vereshchagin “Napoleon at the Berezina” was found thanks to a half-erased photograph

More than two centuries have passed, and the word “Berezina” is still synonymous with military disaster for many Frenchmen and sounds as frightening as “Stalingrad” for the Germans.

And we, the inhabitants of Russia, can rightly consider the battle of the Berezina a symbol of the military prowess of Russian soldiers and the all-destroying strength of our army. Although now such a memorable place of Russian military glory turned out to be on the territory of the neighboring Republic of Belarus.

The crossing of the Berezina was supposed to be a saving maneuver for the retreating under the onslaught of the Russian troops (and under the onslaught of the Russian winter) Napoleon’s Great Army. The French emperor himself with guard units approached the Berezina near the village of Studenka, located north of the city of Borisov, on November 26 and immediately gave the order to start moving to its opposite western bank along two bridge crossings that had already been built by that time by pontoons. The next day, Russian regiments under the command of Peter Wittgenstein and Pavel Chichagov began to gather at the crossing point.

On November 28, the battle broke out. At first, our troops fought with enemy divisions covering the crossing across the Berezina on its eastern bank. Then the fighting spread to the other side of the river channel.

At the crossing over the Berezina, up to 80 thousand French people accumulated. There were not only combat-ready units, but in addition – the wounded, civilians, as well as almost uncontrollable crowds of already demoralized soldiers. When the Russian artillery opened fire, these already good-for-nothing ex-warriors rushed, not listening to orders, to the bridges. Under the weight of human bodies, one of them could not stand it and collapsed. In panic and stampede, many French tried to swim across the river. However, only the strongest were able to overcome almost a hundred meters in icy water. The rest drowned or were forced to return to the eastern shore, where wet people were waiting for death from hypothermia.

The second bridge continued to operate under the fire of our artillery and let the retreating regiments through. However, on the morning of November 29, an order was given to burn it so that the Russians would not capture such a convenient crossing. As a result, thousands of Napoleonic soldiers and almost all the convoys of the Great Army remained on the eastern bank of the Berezina. They were captured by the cavalry units that came to the rescue and the main forces of Wittgenstein’s corps.

One of the Russian officers recalled: “… The plain … presented a terrible picture: it was covered with carriages, carts, mostly broken, piled one on top of the other, strewn with the bodies of the dead … Many were trampled by horses, others were crushed by heavy wagons, others are struck by a hail of bullets and cannonballs, others are drowned in the river while crossing … “

The result of the Battle of the Berezina was terrible for Napoleon. His Grand Army was virtually annihilated. The French emperor himself managed to escape from the “pincers” of the advancing Russian troops with only a few thousand soldiers and officers.

In a report to Emperor Alexander I, Field Marshal Kutuzov indicated the losses of the enemy in this battle: 29 thousand people. According to the estimates of some French military leaders, the damage in manpower suffered on the banks of the Berezina could amount to a total of up to 50 thousand, if we count not only the dead, but also the drowned, frozen, wounded and captured. The losses of the Russian troops turned out to be many times less – only about 8 thousand killed and wounded.

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Years later, the famous Russian battle painter Vasily Vereshchagin decided to display such a very significant military event of the 1812 campaign in a series of paintings dedicated to the Patriotic War. The fate of this picture turned out to be downright detective. The MK correspondent managed to find out the details at one time, thanks to the help of the artist’s grandson, Alexander Plevako.

– My great grandfather wrote about the series of paintings “War of 1812” he had conceived: “I had one goal: to show … the great national spirit of the Russian people, their selflessness and heroism in the fight against the enemy,” said Alexander Sergeevich. – With his characteristic thoroughness, Vereshchagin carried out fundamental preparatory work. He studied over 60 books and studies alone. The first few paintings were painted in 1887 in a Parisian studio. However, the artist realized that in order to write the “War of 1812” he definitely needed to live in Russia. Only here he will be able to better understand and better feel the whole atmosphere of events, to achieve reliability in the image of everything planned. In 1891, Vasily Vasilyevich settled in Moscow, which itself is inextricably linked with the history of that military suffering.

The Moscow public could see the first nine paintings from the new Vereshchagin series at an exhibition in 1895 at the Historical Museum. The vast majority of visitors spoke enthusiastically about the work of the artist, but some representatives of the highest circles of Vereshchagin’s “Napoleonic” cycle were dissatisfied.

For example, my grandfather’s dialogue with the President of the Academy of Arts, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, which happened near the painting “The Retreat of the Great Army”, gained fame. The most august “art historian” declared with aplomb: “Never Napoleon walked in such a stupid fur coat and hat!” “Will it be enough if I present to Your Highness two historical drawings of this costume and a description of it?” Vereshchagin asked. – “Enough”. “And then you publicly admit that you were wrong?” “No, I don’t!”

And when another representative of the royal family, Grand Duke Georgy Mikhailovich (the “chief” of the Russian Museum) turned to Nicholas II for permission to purchase three paintings from the War of 1812 series for the museum collection, the sovereign drew the following resolution: “I find it desirable to purchase one of the paintings Vereshchagin for the Museum. The offended artist, of course, refused such a “seductive” offer. However, later, the difficult financial situation, which threatened the completion of the series about the Patriotic War he had planned, forced V. Vereshchagin to take an extremely humiliating step for himself – to turn to the tsarist government for help. During 1897-1903. the artist carried on an extremely unpleasant correspondence for his pride with the Minister of the Court Frederiks, trying to get a guarantee that, firstly, the paintings of the War of 1812 series would remain in Russia, and secondly, he would be provided with financial support for the continuation of this cycle .

There were no results for a long time, and in 1902 Vasily Vasilyevich, after completing a solo exhibition in New York, decided to hold an auction of his works in America, including paintings of the “Napoleonic” series. However, with the implementation of this plan, unforeseen complications arose, and then the artist finally received the long-awaited news from Russia: the treasury was buying 20 paintings from the War of 1812 series for 100 thousand rubles.

However, the authorities did not give much joy to the artist. Vereshchagin’s canvases were sent to the storerooms of the Russian Museum, so that the public could see this entire series only a few years later, at the posthumous exhibition of Vasily Vasilyevich (the artist died in the spring of 1904, having gone to the Russian fortress of Port Arthur besieged by the Japanese to make sketches for his new series of battle paintings – A.D.).

For many decades, all directories and catalogs reported that the War of 1812 series included 20 canvases. However, later it turned out that there is another one – the 21st, picture from this cycle. “Napoleon at the Berezina”.

For the time being, practically no one knew about its existence. And the “culprit” of the return from oblivion of another work of the great Russian battle painter was the Moscow artist Evgeny Uspensky. It was with this person that Alexander Plevako brought the MK correspondent together.

During our meeting, Evgeny Vasilyevich told the amazing story of the “appearance” of the forgotten Vereshchagin “Napoleon”.

– As a child, I loved to leaf through the album with postcards, kept in our family. And many years later, already working as an artist in the Historical Museum, I became interested in the work of Vereshchagin and remembered that in this album I came across a reproduction of one of the paintings by a remarkable artist. I found that postcard in 1963. The inscription on it said that the reproduction was released for the 100th anniversary of the Patriotic War, that “Napoleon at the Berezina” is one of the paintings in the “War of 1812” series and belongs to a certain Karl Weber.

I began to consult with experts. They were categorical: the Vereshchagin cycle, dedicated to 1812, consists of 20 canvases, which are in the Tretyakov Gallery and in the State Historical Museum. And there is no “Napoleon under the Berezina” among them.

Around the same time, I was lucky to find the artist’s son, also Vasily Vasilyevich, a former White Guard officer who then lived in Czechoslovakia. In his opinion, some kind of fake was depicted on the postcard. Only later, carefully examining one of the old photographs of V.V. Vereshchagin in his house in Moscow’s Nizhnye Kotli, I managed to notice a corner of a picture depicted on it, similar to this “Napoleon”.

So, after all, there was another, 21st, canvas in the series “War of 1812”! Apparently, Vasily Vasilyevich did not have time to finish it, and “Napoleon at the Berezina” remained at the stage of the so-called underpainting. But where to look for this work of the great Russian battle painter, unknown to anyone?

And then the idea occurred to me to seek help from Vasily Zakharchenko, a popular journalist in those years, the editor-in-chief of the Technique for Youth magazine: “Let’s publish a reproduction of the painting and write about the mystery of the artist Vereshchagin. Suddenly, one of the readers will respond?

The material was placed in the November issue for 1966, and a few days later a man came to me at the State Historical Museum with a bundle: “Apparently, you wrote about this particular picture.” He unfolded the canvas, and there – “Napoleon at the Berezina”!

Having carefully examined the canvas, I found a barely distinguishable inscription on the reverse side: “I hereby certify that this picture was painted by my husband, Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin. L.V. Vereshchagin. December 4, 1904″

My visitor’s name was Erich Kovaltsyk. With his help, it was possible to unravel this mysterious story.

It turns out that shortly after the death of the artist, his widow sold the house-workshop in Nizhnye Kotly to the manufacturer Karl Weber. Along with the real estate, he also acquired an unfinished canvas that remained in the home workshop, which was endorsed by L.V. herself during the transfer. Vereshchagina. A few years later, Weber left Russia abroad, and the unsightly underpainting painting, among other household belongings, went from him to the Kovaltsykov family. “This canvas, as far as I remember, was folded all the time,” Erich said. After our meeting, he donated the painting to the funds of the Historical Museum.