Ilya Repin
1846-1930

The Grand Old Man of Russian 19th-century art and one of the first Russian artists to achieve international significance was born in Chuguyev in modern-day Ukraine. His influence has been compared to that of Tolstoy in literature, and every Russian student knows his seminal works, ‘Barge Haulers on the Volga’ (1873), ‘Religious Procession in Kursk Province’ (1883) and ‘The Zaporozhian Cossacks writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan’ (1880–1891).

In 1864 he began attending the Imperial Academy of Arts, and met the painter Ivan Kramskoy, founder of the Wanderers movement, which criticized the inherent injustices in Russian society, of which ‘Barge Haulers on the Volga’ is Repin’s greatest statement, and possibly the high point of critical realism in Russian art. From 1874–1876 he showed at the Salon in Paris and at the exhibitions of the Itinerants’ Society in St Petersburg. He was awarded the title of Academician in 1876 for his painting ‘Sadko’. >> Read more

Ilya Repin
1846-1930

The Grand Old Man of Russian 19^th-century art and one of the first Russian artists to achieve international significance was born in Chuguyev in modern-day Ukraine. His influence has been compared to that of Tolstoy in literature, and every Russian student knows his seminal works, ‘Barge Haulers on the Volga’ (1873), ‘Religious Procession in Kursk Province’ (1883) and ‘The Zaporozhian Cossacks writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan’ (1880–1891).

In 1864 he began attending the Imperial Academy of Arts, and met the painter Ivan Kramskoy, founder of the Wanderers movement, which criticized the inherent injustices in Russian society, of which ‘Barge Haulers on the Volga’ is Repin’s greatest statement, and possibly the high point of critical realism in Russian art. From 1874–1876 he showed at the Salon in Paris and at the exhibitions of the Itinerants’ Society in St Petersburg. He was awarded the title of Academician in 1876 for his painting ‘Sadko’.

Moving to Moscow in the same year, Repin became acquainted with key figures of the day, including Tolstoy, whose portrait he painted more than once. Repin’s portrait of the composer Mussorgsky, painted a few days before the latter’s death, remains one of the most iconic Russian works of the 19^th century. He also painted portraits of Emperor Nicholas II, Princess Maria Tenisheva and, later in his career, Chekhov and Maxim Gorky.

In 1900, Repin moved in with Natalia Nordman and moved to her estate in Finland, Penates. A frequent traveller abroad, in 1901 he was awarded the Legion of Honour. In 1911 he traveled with Nordman, now his his common-law wife, to the World Exhibition in Italy, where his painting ‘October 1905’ and his portraits were displayed in a separate room.

Repin welcomed the February Revolution of 1917, but was rather skeptical towards the October Revolution. The Soviet authorities asked him a number of times to return to Russia but he remained in Finland for the rest of his life. After the Finnish town of Kuokkala was annexed by the Soviet Union, it was renamed Repino in his honour.

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Ilya Repin1846-1930