No matter what military painting I am required to paint, the subject would still be embedded in the Bulgarian land, within the beautiful Bulgarian nature, with that same wonderful Bulgarian peasant – dressed only temporarily in the military uniform.

Jaroslav Věšín

I could safely say that the painting “The Retreat of the Turks at Lüleburgaz” was the true beginning of the end of Věšín’s life. While painting, he shared with me the following: “It was raining nonstop. The cold chilled to the bone. The battlefield was a treacherous slurry of mud and pasty clay, in which people and animals got stuck and could barely move. Everywhere one looked – corpses of men and beasts. Here and there, a slow walking wounded. In the distance withdrew the retreating Turks. I started forward. I heard a terrible wail somewhere close. I looked around. There laid a defeated enemy, a badly wounded Turk. To me, at that moment, he was just a person that I had to help. I handed him the flask, that still held some cognac, but he turned his head away horrified – perhaps thinking I sought to poison him. Then, I drank and offered it to him again. He sipped. Then, he removed a small, petty silver ring shaped as a snake from his finger, shoved it in my hand, muttered in Turkish something I did not understand – and expired. See – this here in the picture is the one,” and Věšín went on to plunge into the horror of this mud, of this pain to death.”

Cornelia Věšín-Genova, daughter to the artist

When we moved to Bulgaria, almost every year Věšín would travel abroad where he would participate in art exhibitions… usually to Munich and Prague, but also Vienna, Berlin, Brussels, Liege, Paris, Milan, Rome, Zagreb, Belgrade, Chisinau, and other European cities. To America he hadn’t been, despite being featured in exhibitions… In many of the mentioned cities, Věšín’s paintings could be found in either museums, galleries, or private individuals…
Upset with the troubles at the Drawing School and noticing that should he leave his paintings here, he would aggravate his already ill-wishing colleagues local even more, Věšín decided to stop showing or selling his paintings in Bulgaria. He never wavered on this, to the end, and thus completely cleared the way for his opponents. Because of this, his major and important works adorn national galleries and private collections abroad.

Cornelia Věšín-Genova, daughter to the artist