Monks at the Door of a Mosque  1870

In the mid-1860s Vereshchagin studied in Paris with the painter Jean-Léon Gérôme. Like many artists of his day, Vereshchagin sought sources of inspiration in non-European subjects. In search of new motifs, he travelled extensively in Central Asia (late 1860s) and in India (late 1870s), participating as an artist in Russian wars in Turkestan and in the Balkan Peninsula. His...