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Vikentiy Russen

Vikentiy Osypovych Russen was a Feodosia-based artist of French origin, author of lithographs and pencil drawings depicting the mosques of southeastern Crimea, created in the mid-19th century. His works are an invaluable iconographic source that captured the appearance of Crimean Tatar architectural monuments, most of which were destroyed during the Soviet period.

Overview

Vikentiy Russen worked in Feodosia in the first half to the middle of the 19th century. His lithograph of the Karagoz Mosque is dated 1843. Russen created a series of pencil drawings and lithographs depicting the mosques of southeastern Crimea: the Karagoz Mosque, the Kolets (Kolech-Mechet) Mosque, and the 1314 Khan Uzbek Mosque in Staryi Krym (Solkhat).

Key details / Subtopics

  • Origin: of French origin, lived and worked in Feodosia.
  • Body of work: pencil drawings and lithographs of Crimean mosques, created in the 1840s. The lithograph of the Karagoz Mosque — 1843; a series of drawings of the Khan Uzbek Mosque (1314), which show it in considerably worse condition than the Karagoz and Kolets mosques: a broken courtyard, a destroyed minaret top, and the ruins of a madrasa.
  • Significance for the history of Crimea: Russen's works preserved for posterity the appearance of mosques of which only foundations remain today (the Karagoz and Kolets mosques). The Khan Uzbek Mosque is the only one of the three to have survived to the present day.
  • Artistic manner: realistic depictions with detailed architectural features (rectangular building shape, tiled dome-shaped roof, minarets, stone entrance niche), as well as genre scenes (peasants walking to the mosque).