The glacier on the way from Kashmir to Ladakh 1875

Vasily Vereshchagin painted this landscape of the Himalayas sometime in the late 19th century. It’s a scene of stark beauty, but for Vereshchagin, landscapes like this one were more than just pretty pictures. Born in Russia, Vereshchagin spent much of his career traveling to far-flung corners of the Russian Empire and beyond. As an artist trained in the academic style, he turned his attention to scenes from military campaigns, focusing on their brutal realities rather than heroic victories. The Himalayas, for Vereshchagin, were another site of imperial ambition and military strategy. By painting this landscape, he invites us to consider the social and political forces at play in this remote region. What role did the Russian Empire, or perhaps Great Britain’s, play here? How did those empires view the mountains, the glaciers, and the people who lived in their shadows? To fully understand Vereshchagin's work, we need to dig into the archives, to study maps and military reports, and to learn about the complex history of Central Asia. Only then can we begin to appreciate the full depth of his vision.