site.btaCzech Artist with Bulgarian Soul

Jaroslav František Julius Vesin (Veshin), a Czech painter who was among an impressive cohort of "Bulgarian Czechs", was born on May 23, 1860. 

A long list of Czechs contributed to modernizing Bulgarian society following its liberation from Ottoman rule: architects and businessmen, intellectuals and artists – they helped to develop Bulgaria’s industry, science and arts. Konstantin Jirecek, historian and first minister of education; the founder of the National Academy of Arts, Ivan Mrkvicka; the composer, Ivan Cibulka, mathematician and Sofia University Professor Anton Sourek, master brewers Franz Milde, Jiri (Georgi) Prosek and his brother Theodore (Bogdan), architect Vaclav Kolar are some of the most famous "Bulgarian Czechs".

Vesin’s name fits in such a list with his impressive contribution to Bulgarian fine arts. 

Born in Vranу, Austrian Empire, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, moved to the Academy of Fine Arts Munich in 1881 and graduated there in 1883. He worked in Munich and in Slovakia, developing a taste for scenes of village life and hunting scenes. 

Vesin arrived in Bulgaria in 1897 at the invitation of Education Minister Konstantin Velichkov (himself a poet, translator, and a painter of no ordinary talent). Velichkov proposed to the young Czech to teach at the newly opened Drawing School in Sofia. For this ambitious cultural project Velichkov gathered a group of artists including another Czech, Ivan Mrkvicka, Lithuanian Boris Schatz and Anton Mitov.

Until 1904, Vesin was a professor at the Drawing School (now the National Academy of Fine Arts). Among his students were Elisaveta Konsulova-Vazova, Nikola Petrov, Atanas Mihov, and other major Bulgarian painters. To quote art critic Anelia Nikolaeva, “Vesin was the first to introduce the European breath of post-impressionist painting into Bulgarian art, and it is no coincidence that his students, the young Bulgarian artists (…) fell in love with his style and became his ardent followers.”

His aesthetic platform was neither esoteric nor elitist – partly explaining why his works were accepted by all ages and social strata. „The language through which we, artists and sculptors, express ourselves is, so to speak, a universal human language: it is understood both in the shepherd's hut and in the prince's palace.“ 

Vesin mainly worked in the area of genre painting, with notable works such as “Horse Market in Sofia” (1899), “Smugglers” (1899), “Threshing” (1900). The main topic of his interest was the life and labour of the Bulgarian peasant. He was master of horse and game images. Being an avid hunter himself, he left behind remarkable hunting scenes and winter landscapes.

In 1904 he obtained Bulgarian citizenship and became the head painter with the Ministry of War. Although he did not abandon his old preferences, he became famous with his masterpieces of battle painting. His “Manoeuvres” series, initiated in 1899, lasted until the Balkan Wars.

It is through these themes that his paintings acquired wide popularity and became known virtually to every Bulgarian. Enough is to name “Charge” (Na nozh, 1913) or “The Samara Flag” (1911). He served as a war artist at the Bulgarian Army Headquarters with the rank of colonel and left series of impressive paintings including “The Turkish Retreat at Luleburgaz” (1913), the “Luleburgaz-Catalca” (1913) sketches and works on the siege of Edirne (e.g. “Bivouac at Edirne”, 1913).

He died suddenly on May 9, 1915, leaving a large number of unfinished paintings and sketched in charcoal and pencil.

Vesin left a mark on Bulgarian fine arts that exceeded by far his position as a professor. He is often called “a Czech with a Bulgarian soul”, but this phrase does not describe properly the scope of his influence. He clearly struck a deep emotional chord with the host nation, as the images he created endured long after the original purpose for which they were made had faded.

His painting “Plowman” [Orach] was used in the design of the 500 leva Bulgarian banknote of 1925 and on the 250 leva banknote of 1943. Image from “The Samara Flag” can be found on a Bulgarian silver commemorative coin on the occasion of the 120 years of the liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule (issued in 1998, nominal value 10,000 leva). 

His paintings were also used on Bulgarian postage stamps (“Manoeuvres”, 1899; “Returning from the Market”, 1898), and his famous “Ferdinand I with His Sons Boris and Kiril at the Parade in Honor of the 20th Anniversary of His Accession” (1907). 

Due to a printing error, several copies of the Ferdinand I stamp came out with an upside-down image. They came to be known as “Upturned Cavalry” stamp and are now major philatelic rarity.