Ilya Yefimovich Repin (5 August 1844 – 29 September 1930) was a Russian realist painter. He was the most renowned Russian artist of the 19th century, when his position in the world of art was

Ilya Yefimovich Repin (5 August 1844 – 29 September 1930) was a Russian realist painter. He was the most renowned Russian artist of the 19th century, when his position in the world of art was comparable to that of Leo Tolstoy in literature. He played a major role in bringing Russian art into the mainstream of European culture. His major works include Barge Haulers on the Volga (1873) («Бурлаки на Волге»), Religious Procession in Kursk Province (1883) («Крестный ход в Курской губернии»), Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (1880–91) («Запорожцы пишут письмо турецкому султану») and Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan («Иван Грозный и сын его Иван 16 ноября 1581 года» или «Иван Грозный убивает своего сына»).

Haulers on the Volga Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks

Repin was born in Chuguyev, in the Kharkov Gubernia of the Russian Empire into a military family. He entered military school in 1854 and in 1856 studied under Ivan Bunakov, a local icon painter. In 1859–1863 he painted icons and wall-paintings by commission for the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. In 1864 he began attending the Imperial Academy of Arts, and met the painter Ivan Kramskoi. In 1869 he was awarded a small gold medal for his painting Job and His Friends. He also met the critic Vladimir Stasov and painted a portrait of Vera Shevtsova, his future wife.

Repin traveled to the Volga River in 1870 to sketch landscapes and studies of barge haulers. The following year he was awarded a large gold medal for his painting The Raising of Jairus' Daughter («Воскрешение дочери Иаира»). In 1872 and met Pavel Tretyakov, who purchased some of Repin's first works. During this time, he worked on the painting Barge Haulers on the Volga, commissioned by Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich. The painting was completed in 1873.

Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan

In an 1872 letter to Stasov, Repin wrote: "Now it is the peasant who is the judge and so it is necessary to represent his interests. (That is just the thing for me, since I am myself, as you know, a peasant, the son of a retired soldier who served twenty-seven hard years in Nicholas I's army.)" In 1873 Repin traveled to Italy and France with his family.

In 1874–1876 he contributed to the Salon in Paris and to the exhibitions of the Itinerants' Society (Общество передвижников) in Saint Petersburg. While in France he became familiar with the impressionists and the debate over a new direction in art. Though he admired some impressionist techniques, especially their depictions of light and color, he felt their work lacked moral or social purpose, key factors in his own art.

Repin earned the title of academician in 1876 for his painting Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom («Садко в подводном царстве»). He moved to Moscow that year, and produced a wide variety of works including portraits of Arkhip Kuindzhi and Ivan Shishkin. In 1878 he befriended Leo Tolstoy and the painter Vasily Surikov. He frequented the art circle of Savva Mamontov, which gathered at Abramtsevo, his estate near Moscow. Here Repin met many of the leading painters of the day, including Vasily Polenov, Valentin Serov, and Mikhail Vrubel.

Repin had favorite subjects, and a limited circle of people whose portraits he painted. But he had a deep sense of purpose in his aesthetics, and had the great artistic gift to sense the spirit of the age and its reflection in the lives and characters of individuals. Repin's search for truth and for an ideal led him various directions artistically, influenced by aspects of hidden social and spiritual experiences and national culture. Like most Russian realists of his times, Repin often based his works on dramatic conflicts rooted in reality, drawn from contemporary life or history. He also used mythological images with a strong sense of purpose. Some of his religious paintings are among his greatest.

Vasily Surikov’s portrait Modest Musorgsky’s portrait Leo Tolstoy’s portrait

His method was the reverse of impressionism. He produced works slowly and carefully. They were the result of close and detailed study. With some of his paintings, he made one hundred or more preliminary sketches. He was never satisfied with his works, and often painted multiple versions, years apart. He also changed and adjusted his methods constantly in order to obtain more effective arrangement and grouping and coloristic power. Repin's style of portraiture was unique, but owed something to the influence of Eduard Manet and Diego Velázquez.

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