| Blowing from Guns in British India | |
|---|---|
 Black and White photogravure of Blowing from Guns in British India. The status of the original color painting is unknown, and it was possibly destroyed by water damage circa 1950. | |
| Artist | Vasily Vereshchagin |
| Year | c. 1884 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Subject | Execution of Namdhari Sikhs in 1872 |
| Location | UC Berkeley |
| Owner | UC Berkeley |
Blowing from Guns in British India, sometimes shortened to Blowing from Guns, was a painting (presumed destroyed) by the Russian artist Vasily Vereshchagin. The painting depicts the execution of Namdhari Sikhs by being "blown from a gun" in January, 1872.[1] A work of Orientalist art, the painting was produced by Vereshchagin as part of a trilogy of works depicting capital punishment, titled Eye for Eye, Tooth for Tooth.
When the work was exhibited in the 1880s, audiences mistakenly believed that it showed sepoys being executed in the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. This misconception persists; Vereshchagin never corrected the mistake, while some period newspapers correctly identified the subject matter.[2] Vereshchagin's English-language exhibition catalogs referred to the painting as Blowing from Guns in British India, but it is now misleadingly known as Suppression of the Indian Revolt by the English.[3]
- ^ Webley, John (2023)."The Orient estranged: Vasilii Vereshchagin’s Blowing from Guns in British India" Russian Orientalism in a Global Context Manchester: Manchester University Press: 120-142
- ^ "The Demoralizing Effect of the Imperial Instinct in a Nation" The Amrita Bazar Patrika Calcutta. February 28, 1899. P. 4
- ^ Vereshchagin, Vasily. Grosvenor Gallery: Exhibition of the Works of Vassili Verestchagin, Illustrated Descriptive Catalogue, trans. Delmar Morgan (London: Grosvenor Gallery, 1887):62.