Bloody Sunday went on display in Kirovohrad

The name of this artwork is Bloody Sunday in Petersburg on January 9, 1905. In a frighteningly expressive way and with almost photographic precision, it depicts a narrative everyone knows of from school. Some historical sources evaluate the number of participants in that demonstration to be as high as 140,000 people, of whom nearly 1,200 were killed and almost 5,000 were wounded. These events were the impetus of the First Russian revolution. Remarkably, the museum staff, followed by the audience, saw the events of 110 years ago rise in a phantasmagoric allusion to the tragic reality of Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity.

Wojciech Kossak was a renowned battle-scene artist, a master of the European level. He was born in Paris to a family of Juliusz Kossak (1824-99), a well-known Polish painter himself, who was born in Ukraine and dedicated many paintings to our country. Wojciech received education in Krakow School of Fine Arts then he studied in Munich and Paris, under the supervision of famous artists of the time – Alexandre Cabanel, Leon Bonnat, and Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier. He developed a fondness for battle scenes during his service in the Krakow Regiment. Kossak’s first models were his own comrades in arms – that’s why his early paintings feature officers’ portraits, military exercises, cavalry charges, and scenes from army life. Later Kossak created a series of paintings dedicated to the war of 1812, in which the Poles fought under Napoleon, hoping to win independence for their country.

The Bloody Sunday in Petersburg on January 9, 1905 was painted in Vienna, only in three months. Already on May 1, 1905, an exhibition of this humongous canvas took place in Vienna, in November of the same year the painting was presented in London, and in the later years – in Paris and US (1907), in Krakow (1914), in Lviv and Warsaw (1917). The artwork was banned by Russian authorities. A special circular by Alexei Belgard, head of the Chief Directorate for Publishing, prohibited any publication of reproductions and articles about this painting. However, one such leaflet featuring the reproduction of Bloody Sunday came out of print in 1906, and was later widely used for revolutionary agitation. The work of art was kept in Poland until 1947, when it was presented to USSR in commemoration of 30th anniversary of October revolution. From December 1947, the painting was in storage of Tretyakov Gallery museum fund.

The size of the canvas is impressive! One is unlikely to find another museum in Ukraine being able to provide enough space to exhibit a painting of 4 by 8 meters! Actually, the size was the main reason of its transfer to Kirovohrad Local History Museum in 1962. From 1965 Bloody Sunday had been on display in one of the museum’s departments – Kirovohrad Picture Gallery (which had been located in the former Church of the Transfiguration) – until 1991, when the premises were returned to the local Orthodox community.

The picture then had been rolled up and placed into the Art Museum storage for 20 years – thus it needed a serious restoration effort in order to be exhibited again. This difficult and important work was taken care of by the experts in oil canvas painting of the National Scientific Research Restoration Center Tetiana Bychko, Anatolii Bezkrovny, Iryna Sapiehina, and Mykhailo Biloshytsky. Their work took almost a year – the restorers cleaned off the dirt, reinforced the paint, put the canvas on a stretcher, and groomed it for the exhibition. Additionally, an observation platform (a kind of a “captain’s deck”) and a new lighting were constructed. And so, in practically a quarter of a century, the unique painting is again available to the public. Nowadays this work of art is the centerpiece of the Regional Art Museum’s collection.