The restoration of Vasily Vereshchagin's famous painting "Triumph" (1872) from the Turkestan series has been completed at the State Tretyakov Gallery with the support of the SNC Group of Companies. The restoration work is one of the stages of the sequential restoration of the works of Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin (1842-1904) from the halls of the permanent exhibition.
The painting "They Triumph" is a large–format canvas created in Munich in 1871-1873. It is part of the cycle "Barbarians" dedicated to the military events in Turkestan. The Turkestan cycle was first shown in 1873 at the painter's first solo exhibition in London, and a year later in St. Petersburg and Moscow. After the exhibition of this series, the whole of Europe and Russia started talking about Vereshchagin. The author set a condition on the indivisibility of an extensive cycle, which only P.M. Tretyakov was able to fulfill. He acquired the entire Turkestan series for 92 thousand silver with the financial support of his brother S.M. Tretyakov Gallery in 1874, having built a separate room for her in the gallery.
The restoration work of the painting "Triumph" was carried out from the beginning of February to the end of March 2025 by the Gallery's specialists under the direction of A.I. Golubeyko, head of the department of restoration of oil paintings of the XVIII – early XX century.
The main task was to eliminate dirt and thin the yellowed varnish, which distorted the author's coloring. To minimize the impact on the painting, helium solvent formulations were used, and the process was accompanied by constant monitoring in ultraviolet rays. As a result, it was possible to restore the chiaroscuro ratios and strengthen the canvas. The painting was stretched on a flatbed stretcher to protect it from vibrations and covered with a new varnish layer.
After the restoration, the painting returned to its historical place in the Vasily Vereshchagin Hall No. 27 in the permanent exhibition of the Tretyakov Gallery in Lavrushinsky Lane.
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