In 1904, he left the State Drawing School, disagreeing with the conservative models it imposed, determined to leave Bulgaria. Knyaz Ferdinand I, impressed with his work, together with the Ministry of War, sprung to change his mind and keep him in the country. Jaroslav Věšín was appointed chief artist to the Ministry of War and commissioned as official court painter. His paintings brought to life the image of the rising power of the army – disciplined, vibrant, beloved, and the pageantry undertone of the canvases certainly befitted.
The Balkan War became an equally defining moment for thousands of Bulgarians and for Jaroslav Věšín. He travelled to the frontlines on the very first days. With a camera and a sketchbook, he traversed hundreds of kilometres with the troops, from Stara Zagora, Svilengrad, Çatalca, Lozengrad, to Dimotika, and Adrianople. The familiar today compositions were created on site. He returned to Sofia in the late spring of 1913, in poor health, changed, visibly aged, “as if carrying his own heavy burden”. Shaken by the experience, Jaroslav Věšín began work on a cycle of large paintings, which he titled “Balkan Epic”, some of which are gathered in this exhibition: “Bayonet Charge”, “Army Supply Train Near the Ergene River”, “Base Depot”, “Field Hospital near Dimotika”, “Storming the fort of Ayvaz Baba”, “Before the Barbed Wire”. His paintings represent the terrifying face of war with its apocalyptic post-battle landscapes, with the mud and the corpses on the ploughed by the shells and ringing with the pain and moans earth.