Battaglia di Arica - Guerra del Pacifico

On the 7th of June, 1880, Chilean troops stormed the Morro, the rocky headland above the port of Arica, during the war Chile fought against Peru and Bolivia over the nitrate coast. The Peruvian commander, Colonel Francisco Bolognesi, was in his sixties and badly outnumbered. Asked to give up the fortress, he answered that he would fight to the last cartridge, and he was killed when the position finally fell. The painter, Juan Lepiani, was a young Peruvian who would build much of his career on that afternoon. To get it right he travelled to Arica to photograph the ground, sat with men who had survived the assault, and even had bodies exhumed so the uniforms and the faces would be accurate.