Abstract
The Caucasus has been the center of attention throughout history with its geopolitical position, mysterious, unique and diverse cultural structure. Especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, Iran, the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire fought for control of the Caucasus. The Russian Empire, which occupied the region, achieved its goal. During the Caucasian War, the Empire occupied the region step by step, while at the same time making efforts to legitimize the occupation. While doing so, painters and other artists were taken to the battlefield. They produced engravings and paintings based on sketches and photographs taken on the battlefield. War painters thus contributed to the propaganda legitimizing the imperial occupation of the region. The mission of the imperial war painters can be described as introducing the civilized world to the world of little-known peoples and allaying European fears about the colonial expansion of the empire. One of the war painters in the service of the Empire was Franz Alexeevich Roubaud/Rubo (1856-1928). F. A. Roubaud was not present in the region during the Caucasian War. However, he later produced very important works for the war and the region. The subject of our study is F. A. Roubaud, the war painter, who created works in the perspective of the fashionable discourses of the period, which legitimized the Russian occupations, strengthened the discourse of “civilization mission” based on “orientalism”, legitimized the Russian occupations, and concealed the colonialist aspects of the Russians who would build a new history in the Caucasus after the war. In the study, the relationship between the war painter and the empire as well as the process of integrating the Caucasus into the empire is tried to be revealed.
Keywords: Kafkasya, Rusya İmparatorluğu, Oryantalizm, Franz Alekseyeviç Roubaud.
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