War refugees of the World War I in paintings and drawings from the Western Russian Provinces
During the World War I millions of civilians all around Europe and the Near East were often forced to leave their homes unprepared and in desperate hope of finding safety and refuge in distant lands. From the very beginning of the war, refugees became the topic and subject for both propagandists and artists alike. For the purposes of this article, a selected number of examples of drawings and paintings, presenting perspectives of Latvian, Polish and Jewish subjects of the tsar, have been chosen. In the iconography, war refugees are generally presented as innocent and helpless victims of the conflict, and as a proof of the brutality and barbarity of the unfolding hostilities. The article also explores the way artists honed in on the depictions of crying women; troubled and helpless old men; small children snuggling up to their mothers and people contending with hunger, cold, fear, disease, uncertainty of the future and longing for lost homes as well as separated family members. Very often, the typical backgrounds for such scenes are ruins and burning buildings. The artists who depicted the war refugees’ fate did not always share such dramatic experiences personally. However, they clealy acknowledged the fact that it played a huge role in forming the identity of the nations they belonged to.

* Artykuł powstał w wyniku badań zrealizowanych w ramach grantu Narodowego Centrum Nauki 2018/29/B/HS3/02075

During the World War I millions of civilians all around Europe and the Near East were often forced to leave their homes unprepared and in desperate hope of finding safety and refuge in distant lands. From the very beginning of the war, refugees became the topic and subject for both propagandists and artists alike. For the purposes of this article, a selected number of examples of drawings and paintings, presenting perspectives of Latvian, Polish and Jewish subjects of the tsar, have been chosen. In the iconography, war refugees are generally presented as innocent and helpless victims of the conflict, and as a proof of the brutality and barbarity of the unfolding hostilities. The article also explores the way artists honed in on the depictions of crying women; troubled and helpless old men; small children snuggling up to their mothers and people contending with hunger, cold, fear, disease, uncertainty of the future and longing for lost homes as well as separated family members. Very often, the typical backgrounds for such scenes are ruins and burning buildings. The artists who depicted the war refugees’ fate did not always share such dramatic experiences personally. However, they clealy acknowledged the fact that it played a huge role in forming the identity of the nations they belonged to.

* Artykuł powstał w wyniku badań zrealizowanych w ramach grantu Narodowego Centrum Nauki 2018/29/B/HS3/02075