09/29/1930. – The artist Ilya Efimovich Repin died
Ilya Efimovich Repin, descendant of the cantonists
Ilya Efimovich Repin (07/24/1844–09/29/1930) - famous artist. Born in the city of Chuguev in the family of a military cantonist villager who was engaged in trade. In 1855 he attended a topographical school, but it closed due to the abolition of military settlements. He studied with the icon painter I.M. Bunakov, fulfilling orders for icons and church paintings; painted portraits.
Having saved money, in 1863 he left for St. Petersburg and after studying at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, he passed exams at the Academy of Arts, where he studied for about 10 years, painting within its walls the painting “Barge Haulers on the Volga” (1873) that brought him fame. For his programmatic work “The Resurrection of Jairus’s Daughter,” Repin received a Grand Gold Medal and the right to a three-year business trip to Italy and France after graduating from the academy in 1871.
Ilya Efimovich’s impressions of the first Rome with its Christian shrines were very remarkable for understanding the worldview that was developing in him as the basis of his work. In 1875 V.V. Stasov published Repin’s letters to him from abroad. “What can I tell you about the notorious Rome? – he wrote in one of them. - I don’t like him at all! An obsolete, dead city, and even traces of life remained only vulgar, priestly ones - not like in the Doge's Palace in Venice! Michelangelo's Moses alone works amazingly. The rest, and with Raphael at the head, is so old, childish, that I don’t want to look... I feel that a reaction is taking place in me against the sympathies of my ancestors: just as they despised Russia and loved Italy, so Italy is now disgusting to me, with its conventional vomiting beauty."
Returning to Russia, in 1878 he joined the “progressive” Association of Mobile Travelers art exhibitions, becoming one of the leaders of the realistic school of painting. His paintings were almost always socially critical; there was a series of paintings even with sympathy for the revolutionaries: “Under Escort” (1876), “Arrest of the Propagandist” (1880–1889), “Refusal of Confession” (1879–1885), “They Didn’t Expect” (1884). Repin’s church themes also often breathe a critical spirit, such as, for example, the paintings “Religious Procession in the Kursk Province” (1880–1883), depicting believers as a stupid fanatical crowd; “Protodeacon” (1877), - according to the critic: “an extract of our deacons... who don’t have an iota of anything spiritual - they are all flesh and blood, pop-eyed eyes, gaping and roaring...”. Judging by some letters, Repin's attitude towards the Church was squeamish.
Repin, however, created portraits of his contemporaries, vivid in their psychological expressiveness - A.F. Pisemsky (1880), (1881), (1881), P.A. Strepetova (1882), (1887). They also often contain evaluative content. Especially in the portraits on the grandiose canvas “The Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council” (1901–1903), which Repin created together with a group of his students.
Probably, the talented artist became a hostage of the social and artistic environment in which he lived and worked (and he was not the only such figure: see biographies, ...). For many, deviating from the unwritten “intelligentsia” norms of behavior meant criticism or professional oblivion. That is why they signed, for example, a protest statement by the Russian intelligentsia in connection with the Beilis trial, shielding an obvious murderer - among them we see the name of Repin...
Perhaps the origin of Ilya Efimovich also played a role here. It can be assumed that Repin’s ancestors were Jewish, since there were cantonists on both his father’s and mother’s sides. “There is also a portrait of the artist himself at the exhibition, his facial features explain what forces him to choose and tell such moments,” he wrote about the reasons for the artist’s critical attitude. About Repin’s warm friendship with Jewry, see: Grigory Ostrovsky. Ilya Repin and the Jews // "Vesti", application "Windows". Tel Aviv, 1.1.2004.)
As a result, Repin gained the sympathy of both liberals and revolutionaries. IN Soviet school his paintings, like those of other Itinerants, served as an example of “angry protest against despotism” and evidence of “dark” and “reactionary” tsarist Russia.
Nevertheless, in this “reactionary” country, Repin, a considerable freethinker, who came from a rather low social class, became a full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts in 1893. In 1894–1907 He taught at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (from 1898 to 1899 - its rector) and, presumably, did not live in poverty. “The ceremonial meeting of the State Council” was written as a government order.
The famous artist also did not like the power of the Bolsheviks. He became an emigrant, but without emigrating. Back in 1899, he settled in the Finnish estate "Penates" in Kuokkala, which later ended up abroad. Attempts by the Soviet government to return the “progressive” Repin to the USSR failed.
The placement of this note about Repin in the “Holy Rus'” calendar is explained by his enormous popularity among the “progressive intelligentsia” and in the Soviet school - it is necessary to place it in the proper educational framework to show “from the opposite” how far many such generally recognized authorities of the “Russian” were culture" from the awareness of Russia's historical vocation. For the sake of fairness, we note that, nevertheless, some of his historical paintings - when they did not concern his ideological contradictions with Orthodox Russia - were included in the golden fund of Russian national painting. Like, for example, “The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan” (1891), etc. And “Barge Haulers on the Volga” - although this is depicted in an exaggerated way - also appeared in recent Russian history. However, a truly Russian artist should not only “scourge social ulcers,” but also have a deeper understanding of their spiritual nature, the means of healing them, and the responsibility for them of the social circle to which Ilya Efimovich himself belonged.
Discussion: 9 comments
Weakly! Repin is an anti-monarchist, an opponent of Holy Rus', and also a falsifier (a painting about the so-called murder of his son by the Blessed Tsar Ivan the Terrible). Experts attribute the latest “creation” to Satanic-like paintings. The very mention of this Russophobe on the site with the symbols “Holy Rus'” with such a touching intonation is a gesture used by anti-monarchists and Russophobes. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Orthodox Russian empire picked up a powerful pace of intellectual, military, economic development. And all sorts of bitters, Chekhovs, Repins saw only the bad in Holy Rus' of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which provided invaluable support to its enemies (internal and external). You can’t wash a black dog white. The author of the text under review is trying to do this. Alexander the First (that’s what they called me at school due to two Alexanders with the same last name) 10/02/2009
Absolute solidarity with Alexander the First. You can’t hide an awl in a bag. Half-truths have always been and will be called LIES. And the Jew Repin’s hand withered away towards the end of his life. What is it for? The author does not write a word about this. It's a pity.
Patriarch Kirill in an interview with the Russia channel: "...In a sense, we are the Church of Cyril and Methodius. They came out of the enlightened Greco-Roman world and went preaching to the Slavs. And who were the Slavs? They are barbarians, people who speak an incomprehensible language language, these are second-class people, they are almost animals. And so enlightened men came to them, brought them the light of Christ’s truth and did something very important - they began to speak with these barbarians in their language, they created the Slavic alphabet, Slavic grammar and translated the Word of God into this language."
He repeated Goebbels almost verbatim: “The Slavs, being ethnic bastards, are not capable of accepting and carrying on the great heritage Aryan race, and in general the Slavs are not suitable to be carriers of culture. They are not a creative people, they are herd animals, not individuals, completely unsuited for mental activity” (Paul Joseph Goebbels, 1942, “Diaries”).
Slavic villages in Germany. The official story is bursting at the seams. Rügen Island - BUYAN ISLAND. Arkaim. Watch the video "Great Tartary" SLAVIC FAMILIES ARE THE HAPPiest!!!
The name of the great artist Ilya Repin is familiar to almost everyone. Many museums, streets and galleries are named in his honor. It deserves special attention. It most clearly and vividly describes the most important events in the life of the great master.
Childhood and youth
Repin Ilya Efimovich was born on August 5, 1844 on the territory of modern Ukraine. The future artist was born in the small town of Chuguev in the Kharkov region. Ilya Repin's father was a military settler.
The boy began to get involved in art early. Already at the age of thirteen he took up painting. Repin's mentor was the icon painter and portrait painter Ivan Mikhailovich Bunakov, who also lived in Chuguev. As the artist himself later admitted, the teacher took colossal influence to shape his style. Repin repeatedly called Bunakov the best of the Chuguev masters. Ilya Efimovich is even credited with the following words: “Ivan Mikhailovich was a truly incredible artist and occupied a place on a par with Holbein.”
From the very beginning of his creative activity, Repin received good reviews about his work. His paintings are very popular in his home district. Wanting to develop further, the young painter makes an important decision in life to try his luck in St. Petersburg. In this glorious city on the Neva it has its continuation short biography Repina.
Study and recognition
In 1863, luck smiled on the talented artist, and Ilya Efimovich entered the Academy of Arts. There, the master shows remarkable creative abilities, which earns him the respect of his colleagues and mentors. Among Repin's famous teachers was Rudolf Kazimirovich Zhukovsky.
Just six years later, the young artist received his first award, which is what Repin’s short biography is about. It was Malaya for the painting “Job and His Friends” he painted.
Searches in creativity
Since 1870, Repin has been traveling by steamship down the Volga River. The artist uses the time allotted for this journey to his advantage for creativity. During the trip, the master’s piggy bank is replenished with numerous sketches and sketches. Later, some of them formed the basis of one of the most important paintings in the master’s work - “Barge Haulers on the Volga”. This canvas took three whole years to paint and was of great importance for the cultural and political life of that time. It is worth noting that its creation was carried out to order from Prince V. Alexandrovich himself. However, this picture aroused genuine emotions not only for him. Critics responded well to the work done. After all, the picture simply amazes with its genuine sincerity, careful technical elaboration of the smallest details and labor-intensive depiction of all the characters.
Soon Repin will receive the next important award for him. In 1870, the artist was awarded the Great Gold Medal. This time the critics' choice fell on a large canvas called "The Resurrection of Jairus' Daughter." This work became significant for the master, because, in addition to recognition in his homeland, he got the opportunity to try his hand at studying and creativity in the vastness of Europe. Sunny Italy and France were already waiting for him, where Repin went. The artist continues to improve his skills.
Cultural heritage
One of the most striking works in Repin’s work was the painting “Cossacks writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan.” The master made his first sketches in 1878. Ilya Efimovich worked on the canvas for ten long years.
It is worth noting that, in addition to creative activities, Repin was also successfully engaged in teaching. So, since 1893 he took an honorable place at the Academy of Arts. Later the master ran the workshop. The top of it teaching activities became the position of rector of the Academy.
Interestingly, the artist was married twice. With his second legal wife, the master lived in his own estate in Finland until the end of his life.
This is where the short biography of Repin ends, but everyone can find something new for themselves in his work.
Ilya Repin was born August 5, 1844 in Chuguev in the Kharkov region in the family of a retired soldier. “I was born a military villager. This title is very despicable - only serfs were considered lower than the villagers,” the artist later wrote. Like many children of military villagers, Repin entered a military school, the topography department. It was there that his passion for drawing first manifested itself. However, the boy was unlucky because the department was soon closed. Then, at the urgent request of the boy, his father apprenticed him to the icon painter Bunakov.
Ilya Repin. Self-portrait. 1878.
For almost four years, Ilya worked in an artel of artists, where he was engaged in painting icons and restoring ancient iconostases, but he dreamed of more. Having saved 100 rubles from church orders, in 1863 the young artist headed to St. Petersburg, but he was unable to enter the Academy of Arts because he did not know the basics of classical drawing. Then Repin decided to enter a private drawing school, where Kramskoy taught. Soon he noticed the talented young man, invited him to visit him, and from then on their friendship began, which played a huge role in Repin’s life.
On Kramskoy’s recommendation, two months later Repin was admitted as a volunteer to the academy. At the end of his first year, he received the highest grade for the painting “The Lamentation of Jeremiah on the Ruins of Jerusalem” and became a student at the academy. In parallel with his studies, Ilya attended evenings at Kramskoy’s house, where members of the artel of the Wanderers gathered. Communication with them determined his creative credo.
In 1871, Repin completed his studies at the academy by participating in the competition for the Great Gold Medal. He painted a painting based on the gospel story “The Resurrection of Jairus’s Daughter.” The picture was highly praised by the academy and Repin was awarded a Big Gold Medal, which entitled him to a six-year trip abroad at the expense of the academy. In 1873, Repin completed work on the painting “Barge Haulers on the Volga.” The artist spoke about how the idea for “Burlakov” was born in his memoirs. This was in 1868. Ilya Repin, a student at the Academy of Arts, worked on a competition painting based on the biblical story “Job and His Friends.”
On one fine summer day, the artist K. Savitsky persuaded Repin to go with him to sketches. They sailed up the Neva on a steamboat in the company of merry officers, students and smart young ladies: “However, what is it that is moving here,” I ask Savitsky... “That dark, greasy, brown spot that is creeping onto our Sun?
A! These are the tow barge haulers pulling the barge; Bravo, what types! You'll see, they'll come closer now, it's worth taking a look.
We got closer. Oh God, why are they so dirty and ragged? One of them has a torn trouser leg dragging on the ground, and his bare knee is sparkling, others have their elbows hanging out, some are without hats; shirts, shirts! Decayed - you can’t recognize the pink chintz hanging on them in stripes, and you can’t even make out either the color or the material from which they are made. These are rags! The strapped breasts are rubbed red, bare and brown from the sun... The faces are gloomy, sometimes only a heavy glance flashes from under a strand of loose hanging hair, the faces are sweaty and shiny, and the shirts are completely dark... What a contrast with this clean fragrant flower garden of the gentlemen!..
This is an incredible picture! - I shout to Savitsky. - Nobody will believe it! People are harnessed instead of cattle! Savitsky, is it really not possible to transport barges with luggage in a more decent way, for example, by tugboats?
Yes, such voices have already been heard, - Savitsky was smart and practically knew life. - But tugboats are expensive; and most importantly, these same pack barges will load the barge, and they will also unload it at the place where the luggage is being transported. Go there and look for the hook workers! What would it be worth?
I was amazed by the whole picture, and almost didn’t listen to him, I kept thinking. What seemed most interesting to me was the moment when a black, sweaty paw rose above the young ladies, and I decided to definitely write a sketch of this scene.”
Both the sketch and the painting were painted. The picture shocked everyone - both the artist’s friends and enemies. But for this, Repin needed several years of hard work, two trips to the Volga, daily communication and friendship with the heroes of the future picture, work on sketches, and long hours in the studio. The first impression of the scene seen on the Neva did not fade, but the concept of the picture changed over time. The straightforward, frontal contrast of barge haulers and elegant young ladies has disappeared; the scene was transferred to the Volga, under a summer sky covered with light clouds, to a sandbank, hot from the scorching sun. In the background on the right was a heavily loaded barge with a figurine of the owner or clerk on board, and across the entire picture, from right to left, walked a gang of barge haulers, straining, with the last of their strength, pulling the ship. The yellow amber of the sand, the deep blue of the water, the expanse of the sky - and a gang of barge haulers in gray, dirty, torn rags, thoroughly soaked with salty sweat, in rotten onuchas or collapsed bast shoes. Sky, water, sand - and eleven people, whose labor is valued lower than that of a horse and, of course, steam traction (in the distance, on the horizon, the smoke of a steamboat was visible).
Ilya Repin. Barge Haulers on the Volga. 1870-1873.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Here is what Stasov wrote: “Just look at Mr. Repin’s “Burlakov”, and you will immediately be forced to admit that no one has ever dared to take such a plot from us and that you have never seen such a deeply stunning picture from Russian folk life, for nothing , that this plot and this task have been facing us and our artists for a long time. But isn’t this the most fundamental property of a powerful talent - to see and put into one’s creation that which is truthful and simple and which hundreds and thousands of people pass by without noticing?” “Barge Haulers” were shown at the World Exhibition in Vienna and brought the artist European fame. One of the great princes purchased it for his collection.
In May 1873, Repin went abroad as a pensioner of the Academy of Arts. He went with his wife and small child, his first daughter Vera. Repin married in February 1872, and Vera Alekseevna Shevtsova became his chosen one.
Ilya Repin. Portrait of V.A. Repina, the artist’s wife. 1876. State Russian Museum,
Saint-Petersburg, Russia.
Young Repin was studying at the Academy of Arts when he met and became friends with his son famous architect Alexey Shevtsov. The friends spent a lot of time together; the situation in their parents’ house was very conducive to this. Among the wide circle of guests who filled the hospitable house, aspiring artists found models for their canvases. A friend’s sister, Vera Shevtsova, responded willingly to Ilya’s requests to pose and followed his commands with enviable patience in the process of implementing a creative idea. There is a well-known portrait, painted in 1869, in which 14-year-old Verochka, the owner of large, expressive dark eyes on a dark face, sat in a free pose in a chair. Communication between the artist and the daughter of the owners of the hospitable house took place not only during working moments of implementing Ilya Repin’s creative ideas. They were brought together by the sounds of the waltz, they sat side by side while playing forfeits. Vera knew how to be a grateful listener; she was thoughtful about the artist’s thoughts about art, about his favorite activity - painting. And she herself was a creative person, she knew how to sculpt a simple figure or draw some kind of animal. The teenage girl seemed to Repin to be a very close person, kindred to his soul. Gradually, Ilya got used to her company and became sad when they didn’t see each other for a long time. At such moments he sent her letters. Vera did not like to write letters, thanks to this quality that remained throughout her life, she kept her lover in constant tension. The young couple walked down the aisle on February 11, 1872, and the girl’s studies were interrupted with the marriage. Late in the fall, she gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Vera in her honor. Two years later, also in the fall, Nadya was born in Paris, and later Yuri and Tatyana appeared in the young family. The artist sketched the household members of his gradually growing family. Paintings of a young mother tired in the evening appeared, sitting down for a moment to rest in a chair, a portrait of the black-haired “Parisian” Nadenka, scattered in her sleep on a snow-white pillow. The paintings emanated a spirit of calm and peace, home comfort, family happiness. Alas, this family did not know him in life. The painter’s biographer Sofya Prorokova wrote: “No one will say for sure when discord settled in the house, but both were equally to blame for it. Repin was a hot-tempered and quick-tempered man, passionate about everything: art, people, nature, books. He was never an exemplary husband and his frequent hobbies caused his wife a lot of grief.”
Ilya Repin. Summer landscape
(Vera Alekseevna Repina on the bridge in Abramtsevo).
1879. State Museum fine arts them. A.S. Pushkin - Department of personal collections.
When moving to St. Petersburg, the Repin family lived in an “open” house, just like Vera Alekseevna’s girlhood. Repin became a gifted artist, successfully moving towards the peak of fame, open to communication, and a charming person. More and more new acquaintances were involuntarily drawn to him - writers, scientists, artists, and ladies also appeared who presented the good-natured owner of the house with signs of attention and considered it a pleasure to pose for celebrities. The artist’s quiet wife, burdened with household chores, did not fit into the atmosphere of such a crowded salon, seething with guests. She was responsible for raising four children, caring for their health and hobbies, she constantly kept in the shadow of her sociable husband, in a word, Vera Alekseevna was not suitable for the role of a worthy hostess of a high-society salon. At the same time, Repin was drawn to new acquaintances, to beautiful women who shone with intelligence and education. His wife could not keep up with him, and by nature she did not strive to be socialite. Scandalous situations and disagreements became frequent in the artist’s family. After Ilya Efimovich’s next hobby, his wife demanded a break in the relationship. The eldest daughters remained with their father, and Yuri and Tatyana with their mother. Vera Veryovkina, one of the artist’s students, with whom he was seriously in love, shared her memories of that difficult time for the couple with her descendants: “I felt deeply sorry for his wife - faded, like plants and women left in the shadows. But my old attachment to the culprit of this shadow prevailed…” wrote a witness to the difficult relationship between the Repins. However, his own frequent hobbies for the fair sex did not prevent the artist from being jealous of his wife. One day he couldn’t restrain himself and kicked his son out of the house. famous artist Perov, who had short novel with Vera Alekseevna. True, after this incident, many acquaintances changed their attitude towards the artist’s wife, and for the worse. Valentin Serov even allowed himself to sharply characterize his attitude towards her: “I have neither sympathy nor respect for her.” Probably, such opinions were formed thanks to Ilya Efimovich’s frank stories about difficult family relationships - between spouses, between parents and children. A troubled life in his home turned the artist into an irritable, hot-tempered person with an uneven, unyielding character. The Repins then diverged, then united again, the final break occurred after the artist moved to Kuokkala near St. Petersburg, and in 1919 Vera Alekseevna died.
The artist spent about three years from 1873 to 1876 in Paris. He was not enthusiastic about modern art. He wrote to Stasov: “We have nothing to learn here... they have a different principle, a different task, a different worldview.” He painted sketches of the Parisian suburbs, street scenes, portraits in particular of Turgenev, conceived and painted the large painting “Parisian Cafe”. In 1876, Repin painted a half-length portrait of his wife, wearing a gray dress and a black hat with an ostrich feather. Vera Alekseevna's appearance was full of grace. Her wardrobe had a Parisian taste. That same year Repin returned to Russia. Here, already on Russian soil, he painted a wonderful painting “On a Turf Bench,” which was a group portrait in a landscape. The artist Grabar responded to this work in the following way: “Brilliant in skill, fresh and juicy, it belonged to the best landscape motifs ever written by Repin.”
Ilya Repin. Beggar (Fisherman Girl). Woel. 1874.
Irkutsk Regional Art Museum named after. V.P.Sukacheva
In search of new stories, Repin and his family headed to Chuguev, to their native place. Among the works of this period, the sketch “A Timid Peasant” and the portrait “Protodeacon”, painted in 1877, stand out. “The Timid Little Peasant” and “Protodeacon” were exhibited by Repin at the Sixth Traveling Exhibition in 1878. Repin spent the summer of 1878 in Abramtsevo with the Mamontovs. He had been here more than once with his family, worked a lot, painted portraits, in particular, of Mamontov himself and his wife, landscapes and still lifes.
With the move to Moscow, Ilya Efimovich developed an interest in Russian antiquity. As a result, the painting “Warrior of the 17th Century” appeared, and soon the more significant painting “Princess Sofya Alekseevna in the Novodevichy Convent”.
Back in 1876, in Chuguev, the artist conceived the painting “Religious procession in the Kursk province.” But he began his plan in 1980. Artists have repeatedly turned to a similar theme, which made it possible to develop a gallery of types of the Russian village, but Repin raised it to the level of historical scale. Fully preserving the sensually tangible concreteness and individuality of each character inherent in his talent, he seemed to recreate the image of all of Russia: a lady inflated with noble arrogance with a miraculous icon, policemen on horseback - guards of order, wealthy merchants, prosperous portly clergymen, bourgeois women touchingly carrying a case from the icon, sedate bearded fists, sotskie, crowding with sticks a crowd of the poor, crippled, wretched... Each of them is a personality, a bright relief character, and all together formed the main character of the picture - a polyphonic and multifaceted image of the Russian village of that time, of the entire Russian society.
During the same period, Ilya Repin painted his first painting on a revolutionary theme - “Under the Gendarmerie Escort.” Further, the artist more than once turned to the image of a revolutionary. This cycle included the paintings “Refusal of Confession”, “Gathering” and “We Didn’t Expect”. In 1880, Repin was completely absorbed in working on “Cossacks”. But soon in his letters to friends there appeared references to “long-conceived pictures from the most pressing reality that surrounds us, understandable to us and exciting us more than all past events.” These were the paintings already begun by the artist: “Religious Procession in Kursk Province”, “Arrest of the Propagandist”, “They Didn’t Expect” and “Refusal of Confession before the Death Penalty”.
Ilya Repin. They didn't wait. 1884-1888.
In the painting, which was very small in size and very restrained in color, everything was simple and everything was complex. Two figures, one of which stands with his back to the viewer, very sparse furnishings; in fact, there is almost none - a prison cell, a damp, dark iron bed, sinking in the pre-dawn twilight. Earthy gray and olive, greenish tones recreated the atmosphere of the scene, adding drama and emotional excitement to the depicted scene. A cold, meager light penetrating from somewhere above illuminated the figure of a prisoner sitting on a bed in a gray prison robe, his pale face, his tangled hair thrown back, his emaciated chest. In front of him is a prison priest with a cross in his hands. An elderly man with a round, stooped back, overweight, already accustomed to his terrible duty - to accompany those sentenced to death to death: the last confession, repentance, reconciliation with God... No tragic gestures of despair and anger, no tense contrasts of color, only the deathly expression is read on the face of the prisoner the melancholy of a person for whom this is the last morning, pride and dignity, unbroken will and confidence in the truth of the chosen path. By his posture, the gesture of his crossed arms, and his facial expression, he rejected the last confession. The artist did not invent his hero. In those years, there were high-profile trials of landowners, Narodnaya Volya, terrorists, and every now and then there were reports of new attempts on the life of the tsar, governors, gendarmerie generals, trials and cruel sentences, escapes from hard labor, suicides, capital punishments, refusals of convicts to make their final confession and participles.
The artist was not a revolutionary in life; he was united with the populists by hatred of despotism, autocracy, and the official church, but he did not share the program and methods of their struggle. He did not belong to any one party; his significance as a major Russian artist was different. The struggle of the revolutionaries against tsarism was an expression of the best qualities of the Russian people and their national character, and therefore Repin could not ignore it, so he painted his paintings, which became his creative and civic feat.
Ilya Repin. Portrait of the composer M.P. Mussorgsky. 1881. Oil on canvas. 71.8 x 58.5. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
It is impossible not to write about the portrait art of Ilya Repin. One of the most iconic in his work was the portrait of Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky. “What a blessing that this portrait now exists in the world. After all, Mussorgsky is one of the greatest Russian musicians. His creations will occupy a great page in the history of Russian music. Of course, several good photographic portraits were taken of Mussorgsky in previous years, but what is photography in comparison with such a creation as a portrait? handmade high artist. And Repin is not only a great painter, he was connected with Mussorgsky by friendship for many years and with all his fiery soul he loved and understood Mussorgsky’s musical creations,” Stasov wrote about this portrait.
Ilya Repin had the chance to see Mussorgsky for the last time at the beginning of Lent. He himself came here from Moscow for a traveling exhibition; he found Mussorgsky already in the Nikolaev military hospital. By all indications, Repin had to hurry up with the portrait of his loved one on his current visit; it was clear that they would never see each other again. And then happiness favored the portrait: at the beginning of Lent, a period of illness began for Mussorgsky when he became refreshed, cheerful, cheerful, believed in a speedy healing and dreamed of new musical works. It was at this time that Repin met Mussorgsky. On top of everything, the weather was wonderful, and the large room with high windows where Mussorgsky was located was completely flooded with sunlight. Repin painted the portrait for only four days: March 2, 3, 4 and 5; After that, the last, fatal period of the great composer’s illness began. This portrait was painted with all sorts of inconveniences: the painter did not even have an easel, and he somehow perched himself at the table in front of which Mussorgsky was sitting in a hospital chair. He presented him in a robe with crimson velvet lapels and cuffs, with his head slightly bowed, deeply thinking about something. The similarity in facial features and expression was striking. Of all those who knew Mussorgsky, there was no one who would not be delighted with this portrait - it was so lifelike, so similar, so faithfully and simply conveyed the whole nature, the whole character, the whole appearance of Mussorgsky.
Even if Repin had left behind only portraits, even then he would have been given one of the leading places in Russian painting. And the point is not only in their number and not even in the fact that in their totality they formed a brilliant, unprecedented gallery of the largest figures of Russia and Russian culture, science, and social thought.
Ilya Repin. Portrait of the writer I.S. Turgenev. 1874.
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
The genre of realistic pictorial portrait, organically combining figurative generalization and typification with individual specific characteristics, found a most talented master in the person of Repin. It seemed that he had spent his whole life in a state of passionate love for a person and, driven by it, he sought and found in each model a unique individual originality, an endless wealth of psychology, character, and inner world. Therefore, not a single portrait of him repeated another, and the system expressive means- from the composition to the energy and direction of the stroke - she revealed amazing flexibility and plasticity in relation to the person being portrayed. Moreover, we can say that all of Repin’s work, in a certain sense, was based on the art of portraiture and all of his paintings from the present and past of Russia are group portraits.
In 1885, Repin completed one of the most famous paintings, “Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan.”
No less famous is the painting “Cossacks composing a letter to the Turkish Sultan,” which took 12 years to complete.
In the late 1870s, Repin worked a lot on portraits and paintings “Seeing Off a Recruit” and “Religious Procession in an Oak Forest.” In the evenings, the hosts and guests gathered together, sang, played, read stories, poems or science articles, argued about art and politics. On one of these summer evenings, Conservatory professor A. Rubets read the correspondence of the Turkish Sultan with the Zaporozhye Cossacks: “Saltan, son of Saltan of Tours, Caesar of Tours and Greek, Macedonian, Babylonian, Jerusalem, Pasha of Assyria, Great and Lesser Egypt, king of Alexandria, army and all in the world of those who live, prince above princes, grandson of God, brave warrior, accuser of Christ, guardian of the crucified God, great ruler, hope and consolation of the infidel, and for Christians sorrow and fall. I command you to voluntarily yield to us along with all people.”
Ilya Repin. Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan November 16, 1581. 1885.
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
The Cossacks’ answer was as follows: “Saltan, the son of the damned Saltan of Tours, comrade Satan, the abysses of hell Saltan of Tours, the foot of the Greek, the cook of the Babylonian, the armorer of Jerusalem, the charioteer of the Assyrian, the distiller of Great and Lesser Egypt, the swineherd of Alexandria, the archak of the army, the dog of the Tatar, living on in the light of the damned asp, the kidnapper of Kamenets Podolsky and all earthly inhabitants of the given spy and stingy, the whole world is brought, the Tursky district is a busurman, equal to miser, the slander of Satan, the grandson of the whole host of hell, the damned messenger of Satan, the enemy of the crucified god and the persecutor of his slaves, hope and consolation Basurmansky, their fall and sorrow. We will not give in to you, but we will fight with you.”
Repin knew this letter from the Cossacks since childhood; lists of it were widely distributed in Ukraine. But now it has stirred up the most precious memories of our native land. A scene arose in the artist’s imagination - the Cossacks were writing a response to the Turkish Sultan. From under Repin’s pencil a group of laughing Cossacks emerged: a clerk with a bowl haircut was grinning slyly, behind him was Ataman Serko, next to him was a Cossack with an outstretched hand, and a little further away was “Taras Bulba,” thundering with all his heroic strength. The artist grouped his characters on an almost square, relatively small canvas. Basically, the composition and the main characters - Serko, the clerk, "Taras Bulba", a Cossack with an outstretched hand, a Cossack sitting on the left in a shirt and some others - remain the same as in the pencil sketch. But Repin brought the entire scene very close to the viewer, as if directly introducing him into the close circle of Cossacks. By cutting off the composition from below, the artist thereby focused all the viewer’s attention on the very characteristic faces their heroes. In the background is a strip of the Dnieper playing in the sun, and right in front of the viewer is a group of tanned, weather-beaten Cossacks. In the complex juxtaposition of red, golden and green clothes, white shirts, velvet and sheepskin hats, dark bronze and purple faces with black and gray mustaches, the artist managed to find the only correct solution. After all, only in this cheerful, major sound of color could the idea and theme of the painting be expressed. After several expeditions to Ukraine in Moscow, Repin began working on a large canvas. He was unable to find the right solution right away, but Repin could no longer leave his Cossacks. The artist described his condition in the following way in a letter to V.V. Stasov: “Until now I could not answer you, Vladimir Vasilyevich, and it’s all the fault of the “Cossacks”, well, what a people!! Where can I write here, my head is spinning from their din and noise... You still decided to encourage me; long before your letter, I completely accidentally turned away the canvas and couldn’t resist, took up the palette and now I’ve been living with them for two and a half weeks without rest, I can’t part with them - they’re cheerful people. No wonder Gogol wrote about them, it’s all true! Damn people!.. No one in the whole world has felt freedom, equality and brotherhood so deeply!! Throughout his life, Zaporozhye remained free and did not submit to anything.”
Compared to the first sketch, Repin made some changes to the larger picture. He lengthened the format of the painting, organized the composition more clearly and variedly, and thereby created the impression of a crowded gathering. The psychological characteristics of the Cossacks became richer and more multifaceted; their images emerged more definitely and plastically. The theme and plot of the picture, its main characters remained the same as in the sketch. But the artist rearranged many of the figures, removed some completely, and introduced many new characters. “Cossacks” became more than just another picture for Repin. They were for him an outlet into which the fresh wind of “freedom, equality and brotherhood” penetrated, the spirit of the free, unconquered Zaporozhye Sich, so strikingly different from contemporary Russia. In several weeks of hard work, Repin significantly advanced the picture. However, new interests, or rather, canvases already begun earlier (“Religious procession in the Kursk province,” “Arrest of a propagandist,” “Refusal of Confession”) gradually relegated “Cossacks” to the background. In the 1880s, Repin completed them, and only then, enriched by great life and creative experience, did he feel the strength to create “Cossacks”. Now the artist knew what the painting should be like - cheerful, cheerful and at the same time majestic, very lively, spontaneous and epic, full of deep meaning and meaning. There was no point in redoing the painting begun in Moscow, so Repin took a blank canvas and wrote another sketch. Now there was no need to write out every figure or detail; the main thing is to imagine what the picture should be like, outline the main groups of Cossacks, determine the ratio of their sizes and the overall scale of the picture. If in the first sketch and version Repin solved the plot as a genre, everyday scene, looking, first of all, for its plastic pictorial expression, now the strictly balanced and majestic form of the picture with historical and heroic content came to the fore. The artist lengthened the format of the painting, building the composition horizontally and rhythmically, like a monumental frieze. He moved the entire group of Cossacks back a little and thus, without excluding the viewer from the action, allowed him at the same time to cover a much larger space with one glance, to imagine the entire Zaporozhye Sich. In 1887, Repin began work on the second and final version"Zaporozhtsev". In accordance with his plan, he painted his picture as a poem about the freedom of the people. The laughter of the Cossacks, cheerful and mocking, became the meaningful, menacing laughter of the Zaporozhye freemen. It now sounded not only contempt and destructive mockery of the enemy, but also a combat challenge. Laughter remained the main motive of the picture, but along with it, serious and significant faces of the Cossacks appeared. This was no longer just a scene from the life of the Zaporozhye Sich, not only the unbridled joy of the Cossacks, but a military council deciding an important issue. Among the main characters, the audience saw the top of the Zaporozhye army - the Kosh chieftain, the esaul, the clerk - and a clear consciousness of their responsibility can be read on their concentrated faces. In the summer of 1890, Repin wrote to one of his friends: “I was working on the overall harmony of the picture. What work it is! Every spot, color, line needs to express together the general mood of the plot and be consistent with and characterize every subject in the picture. I had to sacrifice a lot and change a lot in colors and personalities. Of course, I didn’t touch the main thing that makes up the essence of the picture - this is it. Sometimes I just work until I drop… I get very tired.” A few months later everything is the same: I haven’t finished “Cossacks” yet. What a difficult thing it is to finish a painting! How many sacrifices must be made for the sake of general harmony!
Ilya Repin. The Cossacks write a response to Sultan Mohammed IV. 1880-1891.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.
In 1892, “Cossacks” and more than thirty studies for the painting were exhibited at an exhibition of works by Repin and Shishkin at the Academy of Arts. The painting began its own life, already independent of the author. At exhibitions in Chicago, Budapest, Munich, Stockholm, “Cossacks” enjoyed constant success. Numerous studies, sketches, and drawings for “The Cossacks” have been distributed to many museums around the world: a sketch of the painting is in the Tretyakov Gallery, the first version is in the Kharkov Gallery art museum, the main painting is in the Russian Museum in Leningrad. Every day hundreds of spectators fill the halls of museums, and Ataman Serko, the clerk, the judge, “Taras Bulba” and his sons, the Cossack Golota and all the other Cossacks find their way to the hearts of each of them. Created by the brush of a great master, they have found a long existence in the history of Russian painting, firmly and forever entered our lives as a hymn to the patriotism and love of freedom of our native people. The painting was a success and was purchased for a very high price - 35,000 rubles. The price was so high that even Tretyakov was unable to buy it. The painting was purchased by Alexander III.
The end of the 1880s were difficult years for Repin. In 1887 he separated from his wife. His two eldest daughters, Vera and Nadya, remained with him, and the youngest, Tanya, and son Yuri were taken by his mother. In the same year, Ilya Efimovich left the Peredvizhniki, accusing the Partnership of bureaucracy. As a result of all these experiences, mental anguish, and creative overstrain of the previous many years, Repin’s health deteriorated. He wrote to Stasova on March 7, 1889: “I’m just overworked, probably all my nerves: I can hardly work... Only gloomy thoughts due to malaise. You think you’ll die and everything will remain unfinished.” Repin’s severe fatigue pulled him into the bosom of nature, and the possession of a large sum of money after the sale of the “Cossacks” gave him the opportunity to purchase the comfortable Zdravnevo estate in the Vitebsk province, on the banks of the Western Dvina. For some time, Repin was carried away by his new position - he was engaged in adding a workshop to the house and other economic matters. Having rested, in 1892 he created a beautiful portrait of his daughter Vera - “Autumn Bouquet” and his daughter Nadya in a hunting suit with a gun.
In 1901, Ilya Efimovich began work on a grandiose (4.62 × 8.53 meters) group portrait “The Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council.” Repin was helped in his work on the painting by his students Kustodiev and Kulikov. The artist gave a brilliantly generalized image of the ruling elite of Russia. Work on this painting continued for several years. Repin accepted the government order for this huge painting in April 1901, with the condition that each of the dignitaries would pose for him personally (48 portrait studies for the painting are currently known). The concept of this grandiose group portrait had famous analogies in European painting, starting with the group portraits of Hals and Rembrandt. Such works presupposed not only portraiture, but also outstanding compositional skill. Repin managed to place 60 figures on a huge canvas. He built a perspective from several points of view, depicted the foreground figures much larger than life, without injuring the dignity of any of the characters: each was recognizable and characteristic, and no one, even the presiding Emperor Nicholas II, was shown any visible preference. The conditions of short portrait sessions when performing sketches required extreme concentration of attention from the artist - these conditions were almost extreme. Perhaps it was in such situations that Repin showed the best qualities of his talent. In the sketches for the State Council, portrait vigilance and accuracy of the image were combined with amazing pictorial freedom. Fundamental to the characteristics of most of the characters was the important concentration with which high-ranking officials, dignified and at the same time businesslike, bore the burden of public service. The color scheme of the portraits, juxtaposing the “official” colors of Russian officials - black, gold, red, blue and white, imparted ceremonial solemnity to the depicted. In addition to portrait studies, Repin completed several sketches of the magnificent interior of the Round Hall of the Mariinsky Palace in St. Petersburg, where the meeting took place. During the meeting itself, the artist (for the first time in his practice) used photography for his work.
Ilya Repin. A ceremonial meeting of the State Council on May 7, 1901 in honor of the centenary of its establishment. 1903.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.
In 1899, Repin married for the second time to Natalya Borisovna Nordman-Severova. A year later, he moved to live with her at the Penaty dacha in the town of Kuokkala on the Karelian Isthmus, a two-hour drive from St. Petersburg. They met in 1900 in Paris at the World Art Exhibition, where Repin was a member of the international jury. The beloved was nineteen years younger than Ilya Efimovich. Not attractive, not rich, smart, she had the rare ability to suddenly turn into a charming woman, probably love and generosity made her that way. The critical V. Stasov spoke about the lady who captured the artist’s heart in a letter to his brother: “Repin is not a step away from his Nordmansha (these are miracles: truly, no face, no skin, no beauty, no intelligence, no talent, just absolutely nothing, but it’s like it’s sewn to her skirt).” Natalya Nordman was an admiral's daughter, she came from a Russified Swedish family. Known in Russian literature under the pseudonym Natalya Severova, she wrote many pamphlets, stories, treatises, novels, some of which were published with illustrations by Repin. The young wife's literary abilities were encouraged by the painter. Natalya Nordman was a wonderful photographer; at that time this was a rare occupation for women. In many of her photographs, the artist was captured in different forms. She spoke six languages so well that she translated foreign newspapers for Repin directly from the page.
Natalya Nordman did not have a systematic education, which Repin constantly lamented, recognizing her brilliant mind. To become the wife of the aging Repin, Natalya broke up with her family. In the first year of their acquaintance, the lovers settled together in the holiday village of Kuokkala, and soon moved to the Nordman estate in Finland, Penates. At the request of the owner, a workshop was set up here, overlooking the park. Repin’s paintings were created here, Natalya Borisovna wrote her books, and other artists often worked here. Numerous friends of the Repins gathered in the workshop. Repin’s “Wednesdays” were popular among the Russian intelligentsia; they were especially fun at Christmas. Natalya Nordman was a unique woman. She seated the servants at the common table, the guests were offered dishes of exclusively vegetarian cuisine, on the table were dishes made from hay and cutlets from vegetables. The guests were not served at the table; no one except the owner gave them coats. There were posters everywhere in the house: “Don’t wait for the servants, there are none” or “Do everything yourself” and others.
1905: Ilya Repin and Natalya Nordman-Severova in “Penates” with guests - Maxim Gorky and his lover, actress Maria Andreeva. ©AD.
The performance was performed only in public, but in real life all household chores were performed by servants. Among the regulars of the “strange” house there were jokes about the original dishes created at the behest of Natalya Borisovna. Heading to the artist, the guests first stopped at someone's house for lunch, ate their fill, saying that they would not get anything from Repin except hay. In newspapers, the life of the Repins was described with comic horror. Natalya Nordman's social activities were hectic. She was overwhelmed by a truly passionate desire to take care of weak, unhappy people, and considered practically strangers to her family. From a young age, she was always helping someone: orphans, hungry students, unemployed teachers. As if sensing a savior in her, those who needed help of any kind revolved around her. The famous artist’s admiration for the extraordinary personality of his own wife remained in many portraits of Natalya Borisovna: reading, writing at the table, sitting at the piano... They were made by the master’s hand with warmth and love. Repin created a sculptural portrait of her, beautifully sculpted and subtly felt. Both of them were people with complex characters, with original views on life, so the spouses often simply tired each other. Getting irritated, they started quarrels, which usually ended in travel. One day, after another outburst, Nordman decided to leave for a while to stop the quarrel, but it turned out that the separation was permanent. The first signs of consumption appeared back in 1905, the woman caught a cold while performing a sandal dance in the snow. Very soon tuberculosis developed. Repin took his sick wife to Italy for several months for treatment. The illness subsided for a while, but later it came close again, and it was not possible to get rid of its close embrace. Nordman left for Italy again, and then to Switzerland. Repin, according to the recollections of his contemporaries, parted with his wife without regret; his departure seemed to draw a line under the long-standing break. Trusted by someone else's family, Natalya Borisovna died in June 1914. Repin was late for her funeral, came later to the cemetery and sketched the grave of the woman with whom he lived for 15 years in a road album.
Repinsky “house-terem” in the Kurortny district of St. Petersburg (Primorskoe highway, 411) © AD
Ilya Repin returned to Penates on the eve of his 70th birthday. After the early death of his wife, he lived for sixteen years, surrounded by friends, admirers, and his daughters moved in with him. After the father's second marriage, the relationship with the children became clearly scandalous. The constant demand for money on their part became the norm in their attitude towards their father. Until the end of his years, Repin bore the burden of supporting not only adult children, but also their households; caring for his grandchildren was also entrusted to his shoulders. In order to satisfy the material needs of numerous family members, the artist distanced himself from his large artistic ideas and was forced to take orders for portraits.
After the October Revolution, Kuokkala finds itself outside the new Soviet state. Repin never returned to Russia. “Penates” - a house and garden (now a museum-estate) - were located 44 kilometers from Leningrad along the Primorskoye Highway, in the village of Repino (formerly Kuokkala). The affairs of the museum were in charge of the USSR Academy of Arts, to which Repin bequeathed the estate. The Penate house has its own destiny, which included prosperity, death, and rebirth. In 1899, when the house was purchased, it was a small one-story building, in no way suitable for the work of an artist-painter. Gradually Repin rebuilt it, plastering it with all sorts of bright extensions and erecting a second floor, where he equipped two comfortable workshops - a winter and a summer one. In 1940, the Academy of Arts opened a memorial museum in Repin's house. When the Great Patriotic War began, paintings, drawings, sculpture, household items and furnishings were hastily evacuated from Repin’s house to Leningrad. In the summer of 1944, the Karelian Isthmus was liberated, and it became known that Repin’s house no longer existed. There were burnt trees all around, melted pieces of tin and glass were lying around, half-collapsed stove pipes were sticking out, and only the foundation made of local wild stone preserved the contours of the former house. The old foundation stones have long since sprouted into new walls, and the preserved old things have returned to their original places. Since June 24, 1962, the Repin house began to live new life. Only if you look closely at the tall trees around the house, you will find long scars on them, covered with bark - a memory of that terrible fire.
"Penates" at the beginning of the century were a happy place for communication among the most different people. The first guests at Penaty were V.V. Stasov and members of his family on July 24, old style, 1904, Repin’s birthday. “...The day passed - wonderful! — Stasov wrote to his brother. — Mademoiselle Nordmann took many photographs of us all (she is a great craftswoman), we had dinner, and very formally, in a huge octagonal glass cage that Repin attached to the dacha as a plein-air workshop, in the evening we went to the large sandy mountains above the sea , from where he wrote “What a space” - Beautiful places!..” The photographs that Stasov wrote about have been preserved.
On August 18, 1904, Gorky came to Penaty. He also settled in Kuokkala, at “Villa Lintula”, about two kilometers from “Penates”. Repin introduced Gorky to Stasov. Photographer KK Bulla did not miss the opportunity to photograph everyone. This meeting marked the beginning of Repin’s famous “Wednesdays” for which “Penates” became famous. Here Repin was caught by the tragic events of 1905. That year, he communicated a lot with the direct participants in the events, and, above all, with Alexei Gorky, who, after his release from the Peter and Paul Fortress, was allowed to settle again in Kuokkala.
That memorable summer, many of Gorky’s friends often came to Penaty. Repin later recalled how S. Skitalets, I. Rukavishnikov and A. Kuprin were here. There were many guests, they felt free and spoke openly about everything. Repin sketched the guests. He depicted Gorky reading the newly written drama “Children of the Sun,” and next to him listening to V. Stasov and N. Garin-Mikhailovsky. At the same time, he painted portraits of L. Andreev, Gorky’s wife M. Andreeva, V.V. Stasov. For those who came to Penaty, it was important that the artist valued manifestations of the creative spirit in others. He knew how to recognize talent in any kind of human activity. Maybe that’s why young people - writers, artists - loved to come to Repin so much, because in “Penates” they could always hear a direct and sincere response to everything that worried them. Everyone who was lucky enough to see Repin at work could not forget this miracle of introduction to creativity. Thus, A.I. Kuprin in 1920 recalled the events of fifteen years ago, when he had the opportunity to observe Repin’s work on the portrait of M.F. Andreeva: “Your palette was lying on the floor (it was in a glass pavilion); You held it with your foot as you bent down to pick up the paint with your brush; they walked away, peered, approached, bowed their head and slightly torso, with the brush now raised up, now directed forward, wrote and quickly turned, and all this was so natural, involuntarily, of course, that I saw that it was up to us, outside spectators of your business, you had no interest: we did not exist. It was then, I remember, that I thought: “But how beautiful are all the unconscious movements of a person who, completely forgetting about the impression he makes, is completely occupied with his creative work or free play...”
In the fall of 1907, Repin met the young writer Korney Chukovsky in Kuokkala, and this acquaintance left a deep mark on the fate of both. Chukovsky witnessed the creation of many of Repin’s paintings, accompanied him on trips and largely shared the artist’s hobbies, and became the first editor literary works Repin, combined in the book “Distant Close”. Repin began to visit Chukovsky especially often after the Chukovskys moved to a house almost opposite Repin’s estate. (Repin helped acquire and even rebuild this house, which has survived to this day.) Chukovsky wrote: “More than once, stormy, young - often naive - disputes began around the tea table: about Pushkin, about Dostoevsky, about magazine news, as well as about exciting us famous writers of that pre-war era - Kuprin, Leonid Andreev, Valery Bryusov, Blok. Poems or excerpts from newly published books were often read. Repin loved this atmosphere of ideological interests and excitement; it was familiar to him from his youth.”
Purely literary “environments” often gathered in “Penates”. After touring the studio and getting acquainted with the artist’s new paintings, the invitees stayed for lunch. Vegetarianism in Penates was either strict or relaxed, and only in 1918, when it became very difficult to find food, Repin switched to regular food. His favorite dish was, according to Chukovsky, potatoes with sunflower oil. Many photographs of Repin's round table have been preserved. It is original and convenient. The table was made in 1909 according to Repin’s drawings, after he and Nordman reviewed many designs. The table was two-tiered, with a rotating central part. Everything served for dinner was prepared there in advance, and everyone could, by pulling the movable middle handle, bring what he wanted closer to himself. To avoid unnecessary fuss, clean dishes were also placed in advance, and everyone could take what they needed themselves; used dishes were placed in the lower drawers of the table. Among the numerous photographs depicting Repin's guests in his house, there is a photograph where viewers see the young Vladimir Mayakovsky standing next to Chukovsky in the Penatov dining room. Repin first saw Mayakovsky in June 1915 and immediately appreciated the poet’s talent, but in his mind he could not connect him with the art of the Futurists. That is why he immediately stated that he did not consider Mayakovsky to be a futurist. Repin liked that Mayakovsky painted a lot. There was even a kind of duel between them: they simultaneously drew each other. Repin generally loved to work in company with other artists, rejoicing at the slightest success of another and praising his fellow artist in the most enthusiastic terms.
But his main work was done away from prying eyes. His true life was the hours he devoted to what he loved. Initially Repin worked in that room, which then turned into a dining room with the famous round table. The painting “Black Sea Freemen” was started here, but in 1906 it took place on an easel in the central part of the studio that had just been built on the second floor.
Repin's new painting was dedicated to the Cossacks, but unlike the previous one, where the Cossacks were depicted laughing, here they are immersed in heavy thoughts. This will not seem strange if you know that the picture was painted from 1904 to 1908. And it was not accidental that the outstanding Russian artist came to the need to create a picture depicting those events of Russian history when the people tried to fight for their freedom, depicting not even the struggle itself, but its heroes in tragic moments of reflection. Repin introduced the Zaporozhye Cossacks at the moment of waiting near death, when, returning after a raid on the Turkish shores, they were caught in the Black Sea by a strong storm. Repin presented all shades of human experiences - from dashing prowess to quiet despair. In "Penates" preserved preparatory work to the painting: a small sketch, a study of a man being baptized in a Zaporozhye burka, as well as several excellent drawings of individual characters. The painting itself is unknown to the general public - in 1919, after numerous alterations (Repin changed the composition, rewrote the figures), it ended up in one of the private collections in Sweden.
In addition to working on new works, Repin often returned to old stories. In “Penates” he again painted the painting “Religious Procession in the Oak Forest”, which he began back in the 1870s, and wrote new versions of the paintings “Ivan the Terrible and Son Ivan” (“Son Killer” in 1909) and “Duel” (“Duel” in 1913). Several dozen portraits were painted, as well as the paintings “On Reconnaissance” in 1904, “Manifestation on October 17, 1905” (from 1907 to 1911), “In Besieged Moscow” and “Defenders of Moscow” in 1912, “Kozma Kryuchkov” and “Belgian King Albert in Battle” (from 1914 to 1915), “Attacking with my sister” (from 1915 to 1917) and “Pushkin on the Neva embankment.” The last painting remained in the artist’s work for more than thirty years.
The fate of the creator, psychology artistic creativity- these topics constantly interested Repin. He always willingly painted portraits of artists, painters, musicians and writers. Depict the work of thought, the elusive signs of inspiration, the miracle that precedes birth artistic image, - were the “blue bird” that the artist sought to overtake. The desire to embody the images of artists of the recent past was the subject of the artist’s torment, his hopes and disappointments. On the centennial anniversary of Gogol’s birth, Repin painted a tragic canvas in which he depicted the writer burning the manuscript of the second volume “ Dead souls"("Gogol's self-immolation" in 1909). In 1910, by order of the Lyceum Society, Repin began work on the painting “A.S. Pushkin at the Act at the Lyceum on January 8, 1815.” The artist became so carried away that instead of the intended small sketch, he began to paint a picture on a large canvas, with life-size figures. However, seeing the bewilderment of his customers, he painted another canvas for the Lyceum, much smaller in size. (This well-known painting is in the All-Union Museum of A.S. Pushkin.). However, Repin did not abandon his original plan. This first version was shown at a traveling exhibition, caused many mixed responses, returned to the artist’s studio and later ended up in Czechoslovakia. The work on another “Pushkin” canvas, which remained in “Penates” and stands on an easel in the studio, was much more difficult. Repin decided to depict the figure of Pushkin for the centenary of his birth and painted a large canvas, very decorative and effective. Everyone liked the picture, but Repin was dissatisfied with it and soon completely rewrote the figure. In subsequent years, Pushkin on Repin’s canvas was constantly changing. The photographs conveyed to posterity at least seven or eight different images. By 1910, the poet's image took on a tragic tone. The painting became known as “Pushkin on the Neva embankment. 1835." The setting sun illuminated his face and top part figures, and the Peter and Paul Fortress became the background. After this there were several more revisions, and all the changes took place on one canvas, so that the paint was already applied in a thick layer. Repin scraped it off and immediately wrote another version. Repin’s moods changed, and so did his “Pushkin.” “I’m in despair: my enchanted treasure - Pushkin has not been given to me for more than 15 years... Now, it seems, I’ve told... And suddenly everything will fall apart, and the treasure has failed again,” wrote Repin in 1910, and again in 1917 : “And despite the fact that I’ve clearly, for 20 years, gotten used to not hoping for luck, I throw myself at the attack of this charming Arab...” In 1925: “And “Pushkin” is still not finished.” Even in 1930, Repin tried to remake Pushkin. It was as if he did not want to part with the “beloved poet.” In the end, Repin came closer to the mood that permeated the 1910 version, and this laborious canvas became a monument to both Pushkin and Repin.
Despite his forced seclusion in “Penates” after 1918, Repin did not leave work in the studio, and painting was his salvation from all troubles. He completed the “Religious Procession in the Oak Forest”, painted a collective portrait of Finnish artists, musicians and writers, and several paintings on gospel subjects. Artists who came to Repin in 1926 Soviet Russia led by Joseph Brodsky unanimously noted the unusual compositional solution and the picturesque expressiveness of Repin’s new painting “Calvary”. The artist was very pleased with the arrival of Brodsky, who had recently been his student. I asked him about everything with interest, but did not dare to go home: Repin was old, he was afraid to leave his settled workshop, where at 82 he still planned to write new picture. He began his work secretly from everyone. The painting was dedicated to the memory of Repin’s favorite composer, Modest Mussorgsky. The Cossacks were depicted dancing the hopak. Repin immediately painted a campfire and figures jumping over the fire. “Hopak” became the third painting depicting the “knights of the spirit,” as they called themselves, so beloved by the artist. In such cheerful company, with a smile of gratitude to fate, the artist approached the finale. He decided in advance where and how he should be buried, and having ordered it, he continued to work and even in his last moments, in oblivion, he still moved his hand in the air, as if working with a brush. He died in Penates September 29, 1930. Ilya Repin was buried in the estate park, which was created by his hands and according to his plans.
When the estate was acquired, the site was a sparse forest located in swampy lowlands. The site had to be drained; for this purpose, five ponds were dug in the future park. All of them are connected by small channels, which, intricately flowing into the streams that existed here, go out to the bay. When an artesian well was drilled in 1914, it began to feed the ponds clean water. In the first years of the estate's existence, two long parallel paths were laid along the park. One of them, starting immediately from the carved gate, was planted with birch trees, the other, located from the house, with young spruce trees (Repin called it Pushkin Alley). When creating their park-garden, the owners of Penaty tried to use the landscape features of these harsh places. Large boulders, of which there are many in the local fields, in the forest and on the shore, arranged in picturesque groups, became the decoration of the garden. Near the house there were flower beds where phlox, fragrant tobacco, lilies bloomed, lilac, jasmine, viburnum, and rose hips were planted. The banks of the ponds are reinforced with cobblestones, and willows grow near the water. The paths in the park were also paved with small pebbles from the sea. There are wooden bridges with railings across the channels of the ponds and ditches. Some bridges are made of wild stone. At different times, wooden gazebos, decorated with carvings and brightly painted, were erected in different places of the park, on the hills and in the lowlands. And again, wild local stone became both the foundation and the steps. Every corner of the park had a name, but the names changed quickly. The Penatov Garden also became a tourist attraction, and guests who visited here associated it with Repin’s creative personality. We continue to be amazed by the care and tact with which Repin transformed the waste land without disturbing the natural balance in any way. During the difficult 1920s, the park gradually fell into disrepair. The paths were overgrown, the gazebos were destroyed. One of the ponds was filled in. A vegetable garden was planted in the resulting area. However, in general, the park retained its appearance until 1940, when the museum was opened. In 1977, extensive restoration work was carried out on the estate, and new memorial corners were opened in the park.
A documentary film “Delight over the Abyss” was made about Ilya Repin.
Text prepared by Tatyana Halina
Used materials:
I.E. Grabar - "Repin"
O.A. Lyaskovskaya - “I.E. Repin"
A.A. Fedorov-Davydov – “I.E. Repin"
Site materials – www.ilyarepin.ru
And Lya Repin became interested in drawing in early childhood; he studied to be a topographer and was an apprentice to icon painters. Repin entered the Academy of Arts only the second time, but then returned there to teach. And famous St. Petersburg aristocrats and even Emperor Alexander III ordered his paintings.
Topographer, icon painter, student at the Academy of Arts
Ilya Repin was born in 1844 in Chuguev, near Kharkov. His father, Efim Repin, together with his eldest son, drove herds of horses for sale. Mother, Tatyana Bocharova, raised her own children and organized a small school where peasants and their children learned penmanship, arithmetic and the Law of God.
The future artist began drawing early. His cousin Trofim Chaplygin brought paints to the Repins’ house, and since then the boy has not parted with watercolors.
“I had never seen paints before and I was looking forward to Trofim painting with paints. The first picture - a watermelon - suddenly turned into a living one before our eyes. But there was a miracle when Trofim painted the cut half of the second watermelon with red paint so vividly and juicily that we even wanted to eat the watermelon; and when the red paint had dried, with a thin brush he made black seeds here and there across the red pulp - a miracle! miracle!"
Ilya Repin
When Ilya Repin was 11 years old, he was sent to topography school - this specialty was in demand in Chuguev. But the boy studied there for only two years, then the school was closed. He got a job as an apprentice in an icon-painting workshop with a representative of the artistic dynasty, master Ivan Bunakov. Repin recalled about him: “My teacher, Ivan Mikhailovich Bunakov, was an excellent portrait painter, he was a very talented painter”.
The talent of the young student was quickly noticed: at the age of 16, Repin had already left to work with a nomadic artel of icon painters. A few years later, the young artist decided to go to St. Petersburg to study painting. He collected all the money he earned and left to enter the Academy of Arts.
Repin failed the first entrance examination to the Academy of Arts. However, in hometown he didn't return. The aspiring artist became a student at a preparatory evening school, and later came back for tests at the Academy. And he did. During his eight years of study, he met many representatives of the creative elite of the Northern capital: Repin communicated closely with the artists Ivan Kramskoy, whom he called his teacher in his memoirs, and Vasily Polenov, as well as the critic Vasily Stasov.
Genre and historical paintings by Ilya Repin
However, the young painter lived in poverty. He earned money by selling his paintings. One of the genre paintings - in it Repin depicted a student watching a girl through the window - was bought for a fairly large sum. The artist recalled: “I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such happiness in my entire life!” In addition to genre paintings, Repin also created portraits. In 1869 he wrote to Vera Shevtsova, who three years later became his wife.
Ilya Repin. Resurrection of Jairus' daughter. 1871. State Russian Museum
Ilya Repin. Slavic composers. 1872. Moscow State Conservatory
Ilya Repin. Barge Haulers on the Volga. 1872-1873. State Russian Museum
For his diploma work - a painting based on the biblical motif "The Resurrection of Jairus's Daughter" - Repin received a Big Gold Medal and the opportunity to travel to Europe to study Western European art.
By the time Repin graduated from the Academy, he was already a fairly famous artist and received his first major order. Alexander Porokhovshchikov, the owner of the Slavic Bazaar hotel, invited him to write “A Collection of Russian, Polish and Czech Composers” to decorate the restaurant. The amount of the fee - 1,500 rubles - seemed huge to Repin at that time. Vasily Stasov helped the artist in his work: he collected archival materials necessary for the work. The public liked the picture. But Ivan Turgenev was dissatisfied with her. In a letter to Stasov, he sarcastically called the painting “a vinaigrette of the living and the dead.” In 1873, Ilya Repin completed the canvas “Barge Haulers on the Volga,” which he worked on for several years.
Soon the artist went on a retirement trip from the Academy. In a letter to Stasov, he complained: “There are a lot of galleries, but... I don’t have the patience to get to the good stuff”.
Returning to Russia, Repin collected his “large stock of artistic goods,” moved from Chuguev to Moscow and joined the Association of Itinerants. In Moscow, Repin met Leo Tolstoy, completed the painting “Religious Procession in the Kursk Province,” painted (on the second attempt) a portrait of Turgenev and prepared an unknown young man named Valentin Serov for admission to the Academy of Arts. However, the artist soon got tired of Moscow, and he decided to move to St. Petersburg again.
During this time, the artist painted several works that became classics of Russian art. Once he attended a concert by Rimsky-Korsakov and was inspired by the desire “to depict in painting something similar in power to his music.” In 1885, at the exhibition of the Wanderers, the artist presented the textbook painting “Ivan the Terrible Kills His Son.” During the same period, he painted the canvas “They Didn’t Expect”, portraits of Leo Tolstoy and Pavel Tretyakov.
Ilya Repin. They didn't wait. 1884-1887. State Tretyakov Gallery
Ilya Repin. The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan. 1880-1891. State Russian Museum
Ilya Repin. Ivan the Terrible kills his son. 1885. State Tretyakov Gallery
In 1892, the Academy of Arts hosted an exhibition of Ilya Repin and Ivan Shishkin. Her guests saw the painting “Cossacks writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan” - Repin worked on it for 11 years. The canvas was purchased by Emperor Alexander III - the price of 35 thousand rubles turned out to be high even for Pavel Tretyakov.
In 1894, Repin returned to the Academy of Arts - this time as a teacher. He taught there for 13 years - until 1907.
Kuokkalla - native "Penates"
While Ilya Repin worked at the Academy of Arts, he managed to visit Italy again, fulfill several large-scale orders from the emperor (including the “Anniversary Meeting of the State Council”) and marry the writer Natalya Nordman for the second time. The romance developed rapidly: they met at the beginning of 1900, and that same fall Repin moved to Nordman’s estate near St. Petersburg in the village of Kuokkala. Korney Chukovsky recalled the order in the Repins’ house: the artist’s wife was a vegetarian, opposed wearing fur, and wore a thin coat in any frost. Repin himself became a vegetarian. Signs were hung around their house: “Don’t wait for servants - there aren’t any”, "Servants are a disgrace to humanity". However, despite these extravagant rules, poets, writers and artists visited the house of Repin and Nordman. Repin met them on Wednesdays. The table was prepared for the guests, and the spouses looked after them themselves.
Ilya Efimovich Repin. Born July 24 (August 5), 1844 in Chuguev - died September 29, 1930 in Kuokkala, Finland. Russian artist-painter. The son of a soldier, in his youth he worked as an icon painter. He studied at the Drawing School under the guidance of I. N. Kramskoy, and continued his studies at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts.
Since 1878 - member of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. Academician Imperial Academy arts Professor - head of the workshop (1894-1907) and rector (1898-1899) of the Academy of Arts, teacher of the Tenisheva school-workshop; among his students are B. M. Kustodiev, I. E. Grabar, I. S. Kulikov, F. A. Malyavin, A. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, N. I. Feshin. Direct mentor of V. A. Serov.
From the very beginning of his creative career, from the 1870s, Repin became one of the key figures of Russian realism.
The artist managed to solve the problem of reflecting in a painting the entire diversity of the surrounding life; in his work he managed to cover all aspects of modernity, touch on topics of concern to the public, and reacted vividly to the topic of the day. Repin's artistic language was characterized by plasticity; he perceived various stylistic trends from the Spaniards and Dutch of the 17th century to Alexander Ivanov and modern French impressionists.
Repin's creativity flourished in the 1880s. He creates a gallery of portraits of his contemporaries, works as a historical artist and master everyday scenes. In area historical painting he was attracted by the opportunity to reveal the emotional expressiveness of the proposed situation. The artist’s element was modernity, and even while creating paintings on themes of the legendary past, he remained a master of the vital present, reducing the distance between the viewer and the heroes of his works. According to art critic V.V. Stasov, Repin’s work is “an encyclopedia of post-reform Russia.”
Repin spent the last 30 years of his life in Finland, on his estate Penates in Kuokkala. He continued to work, although not as intensely as before. In recent years, he has turned to biblical subjects. In Kuokkala, Repin wrote his memoirs, a number of his essays were included in the book of memoirs “Distant Close”.
Ilya Efimovich Repin was born in the city of Chuguev, located near Kharkov.
His paternal grandfather, a non-service Cossack Vasily Efimovich Repin, conducted trade and owned an inn. According to metric books, he died in the 1830s, after which all household concerns fell on the shoulders of his wife Natalya Titovna Repina. The artist's father Efim Vasilyevich (1804-1894) was the eldest of the children in the family.
In his memoirs dedicated to his childhood, Ilya Efimovich mentioned his father as a “ticket soldier” who, together with his brother, annually traveled to the “Donshchina” and, covering a distance of three hundred miles, drove from there herds of horses for sale. During his service in the Chuguev Uhlan Regiment, Efim Vasilyevich managed to take part in three military campaigns and received awards. Ilya Repin tried to maintain connections with his hometown, Slobozhanshchina and Ukraine until the end of his life, and Ukrainian motifs occupied an important place in the artist’s work.
The artist’s maternal grandfather, Stepan Vasilyevich Bocharov, also gave many years military service. His wife was Pelageya Minaevna, whose maiden name the researchers were unable to determine.
In the early 1830s, the Bocharovs' daughter Tatyana Stepanovna (1811-1880) married Efim Vasilyevich. At first, the Repins lived under the same roof with their husband’s parents. Later, having saved money from horse trading, the head of the family managed to build a spacious house on the banks of the Northern Donets. Tatyana Stepanovna, being a literate and active woman, not only educated children, reading aloud to them the works of Pushkin, Lermontov, Zhukovsky, but also organized a small school, which was attended by both peasant children and adults. There were few educational subjects in it: penmanship, arithmetic and the Law of God. The family periodically had problems with money, and Tatyana Stepanovna sewed hare fur coats for sale.
Watercolor paints were first brought to the Repins’ house by Ilya Efimovich’s cousin, Trofim Chaplygin. As the artist himself later recalled, his life changed at the moment when he saw the “revival” of a watermelon: a black and white picture placed in a children’s alphabet suddenly acquired brightness and richness. From that day on, the idea of transforming the world with the help of paints never left the boy.
In 1855, his parents sent eleven-year-old Ilya to study at a topography school.- this specialty, associated with filming and drawing work, was considered prestigious in Chuguev. However, two years later educational institution was abolished, and Repin got a job in the icon-painting workshop of the artist I.M. Bunakov. Soon the news about Bunakov’s talented student spread far beyond Chuguev; The young master began to be invited by contractors who came to the city and needed painters and gilders.
At the age of sixteen, the young man left both the workshop and his parents' house: he was offered 25 rubles a month for work in a nomadic icon-painting artel, which moved from city to city as orders were fulfilled.
In the summer of 1863, artel workers worked in the Voronezh province not far from Ostrogozhsk, the town in which the artist Ivan Kramskoy was born. Repin learned from local artists that their fellow countryman, who by that time had already received a small gold medal for the painting “Moses Brings Water Out of a Rock,” left his hometown seven years ago and went to study at the Academy of Arts. The stories of the Ostrogozh residents served as an incentive for drastic life changes: in the fall, having collected all the money he earned over the summer months, Ilya Efimovich went to St. Petersburg.
Repin's first visit to the Academy of Arts disappointed him: the conference secretary of the Academy, F. F. Lvov, having familiarized himself with the drawings of a nineteen-year-old boy, reported that he did not know how to paint and did not know how to create strokes and shadows.
The failure upset Ilya Efimovich, but did not discourage him from wanting to study. Having rented a room in the attic for five and a half rubles and switching to austerity mode, he got a job at an evening drawing school, where he was soon recognized as the best student. A second visit to the Academy ended with successful passing of the exam, but after the entrance examinations Repin again faced difficulties: for the right to attend classes, a volunteer had to pay 25 rubles. This amount was contributed for Repin by a patron, the head of the postal department, Fyodor Pryanishnikov, to whom Ilya Efimovich turned for help.
During the eight years spent within the walls of the Academy, Repin made many friends. Their number included Vasily Polenov, in whose house the aspiring artist always received a warm welcome, and Mark Antokolsky, who arrived in the capital from Vilna to study as a sculptor and subsequently wrote: “We soon became close, as only lonely people in a foreign land can get close.”
In 1869, Repin met the art critic Vladimir Stasov, who for many years was part of Repin’s “inner circle.” He considered Kramskoy his immediate mentor: Repin was his own man in the art artel created by Ivan Nikolayevich, showed him his student sketches, listened to advice. After Kramskoy's death, Repin wrote memoirs in which he called the artist his teacher.
Years of study brought Repin several awards, including a silver medal for his sketch "The Angel of Death Beats All the First-Born Egyptians"(1865), small gold medal for work "Job and His Brothers"(1869) and a large gold medal for the painting "Resurrection of Jairus' Daughter"(1871). Years later, recalling the story of “Resurrection...”, Repin told a circle of artists that preparations for writing it were complicated by the lack of money. In desperation, a student of the Academy created a genre picture of how a student preparing for exams watches a girl from a neighboring apartment through the window. Ilya Efimovich took his work to the Trenti store, gave it to a commission and was surprised when he was soon given a considerable sum: “It seems that I have never experienced such happiness in my entire life!” The money received was enough for paints and canvas, but their purchase did not relieve creative pangs: the plot of “Jairus’s Daughter” did not work out.
The plot of the first of Repin's significant paintings - "Barge Haulers on the Volga"- was prompted by life. In 1868, while working on sketches, Ilya Efimovich saw barge haulers on the Neva. The contrast between the idle, carefree public walking on the shore and the people pulling rafts with straps impressed the Academy student so much that upon returning to his rented apartment, he began creating sketches depicting “draft manpower.” Academic obligations related to the competition for a small gold medal did not allow him to completely immerse himself in his new work, however, according to the artist, neither during games with friends in town, nor while communicating with familiar young ladies, he could not free himself from the ripening plan.
In the summer of 1870, Repin, together with his brother and fellow painters Fyodor Vasilyev and Evgeny Makarov, went to the Volga. Vasilyev received money for the trip - two hundred rubles - from wealthy patrons. As Repin later wrote, the journey was not limited to contemplating the landscapes “with albums” in their hands: young people met local residents, sometimes spent the night in unfamiliar huts, and sat around the fire in the evenings. The Volga spaces amazed young artists with their epic scope; The mood of the future canvas was created by Glinka’s “Komarinskaya”, which constantly sounded in the memory of Ilya Efimovich, and the volume of Homer’s “Iliad” he took with him. One day the artist saw “the most perfect type of desirable barge hauler” - a man named Kanin (in the picture he is depicted in the first three, “with his head tied in a dirty rag”).
By 1871, Repin had already gained some fame in the capital. At the exam, he received the first gold medal for the painting “The Resurrection of Jairus’s Daughter”, the title of artist of the first degree and the right to a six-year trip abroad.
Rumors about the talented graduate of the Academy reached Moscow: the owner of the Slavic Bazaar hotel, Alexander Porokhovshchikov, invited Ilya Efimovich to paint the painting “Collection of Russian, Polish and Czech Composers,” promising 1,500 rubles for the work. At that time, portraits of many cultural figures were already placed in the hall of the hotel restaurant - all that was missing was a “large decorative spot.” The artist Konstantin Makovsky, whom Porokhovshchikov had previously approached, believed that this money would not pay for all the labor costs, and asked for 25,000 rubles. But for Repin, the order from a Moscow entrepreneur was a chance to finally get out of many years of poverty. In his memoirs, he admitted that “the amount assigned for the painting seemed enormous.”
Stasov also got involved in the work together with Repin, who, being well versed in music, collected materials in the Public Library and gave professional advice. Nikolai Rubinstein, Eduard Napravnik, Mily Balakirev and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov posed for the picture; Repin created images of other composers, including those who had passed away, based on engravings and photographs found by Stasov.
The opening took place in June 1872 "Slavic Bazaar". The picture presented to the public received many compliments, and its author received a lot of praise and congratulations. Among those who were dissatisfied was Ivan Turgenev: he told Repin that he could not “reconcile himself with the idea of this picture.” Later, in a letter to Stasov, the writer called Repin’s canvas “a cold vinaigrette of the living and the dead - strained nonsense that could have been born in the head of some Khlestakov-Porokhovshchikov.”
Vera Shevtsova, the sister of his friend at the drawing school Alexander, Ilya Efimovich knew from childhood: in the house of their father, academician of architecture Alexei Ivanovich Shevtsov, young people often gathered. Ilya Efimovich and Vera Alekseevna got married in 1872. Instead of a honeymoon, Repin offered his young wife business trips - first to Moscow, to the opening of the “Slavic Bazaar”, and then to sketches in Nizhny Novgorod, where the artist continued to look for motifs and types for “Barge Haulers”. Later in the fall of the same 1872, a daughter was born, who was also named Vera. Stasov and composer Modest Mussorgsky, who “improvised, sang and played a lot,” were present at the girl’s christening.
Repin's first marriage lasted fifteen years. Over the years, Vera Alekseevna gave birth to four children: in addition to the eldest, Vera, Nadezhda, Yuri and Tatyana grew up in the family. The marriage, according to researchers, could hardly be called happy: Ilya Efimovich gravitated towards an open house, was ready to receive guests at any time; he was constantly surrounded by ladies who wanted to pose for new paintings; For Vera Alekseevna, who was focused on raising children, the salon lifestyle was a burden.
The break in relations occurred in 1887. During the divorce, the former spouses divided the children: the older ones stayed with their father, the younger ones went to live with their mother. The family drama seriously influenced the artist.
In April 1873, when the eldest daughter had grown up a little, the family of Repin, who had the right to travel abroad as a pensioner of the Academy, went on a voyage around Europe. After visiting Vienna, Venice, Florence, Rome and Naples, the artist rented an apartment and studio in Paris.
In letters to Stasov, he complained that the capital of Italy disappointed him (“There are many galleries, but... I don’t have the patience to get to the bottom of good things”), and Raphael seemed “boring and outdated.”
Getting used to Paris was slow, but by the end of the trip the artist began to recognize the French impressionists, separately singling out Manet, under whose influence, according to researchers, Repin created the painting "Parisian cafe", indicating mastery of plein air painting techniques.
Nevertheless, according to the artist Yakov Minchenkov, until the end of his life the new forms “baffled him, and the impressionist landscape painters irritated him.” They, in turn, reproached Ilya Efimovich for “not understanding beauty.” A unique response to their claims was the painting “Sadko”, painted by Repin in Paris, the hero of which “feels like he’s in some kind of underwater kingdom.” Its creation was complicated by the fact that it took too much time to find a customer and money; interest in the invented plot gradually melted away, and in one of the letters to Stasov, the disgruntled artist admitted that he was “terribly disappointed with the painting ‘Sadko’.”
In 1876, Repin received the title of academician for the painting “Sadko”.
Returning to Russia, Repin lived and worked in his native Chuguev for a year - from October 1876 to September 1877. All these months he corresponded with Polenov, inviting him to settle in Moscow. The move turned out to be difficult: Ilya Efimovich, as he himself told Stasov, was carrying with him “a large supply of artistic goods,” which stood unpacked for a long time due to the malaria that fell on Repin.
After recovery, the artist informed Kramskoy that he had decided to join the Association of Itinerants.
The initiator of Repin’s acquaintance was Stasov, who, starting in the 1870s, tirelessly told the writer about the emergence of a “new luminary” in Russian art. Their meeting took place in October 1880, when Lev Nikolaevich suddenly appeared in the house of Baroness Simolin (Bolshoi Trubny Lane, No. 9), where Repin lived. The artist wrote to Stasov about this in detail, noting that the writer “is very similar to Kramskoy’s portrait.”
The acquaintance continued a year later, when Lev Nikolaevich, having arrived in Moscow, stayed with the Volkonskys. As the artist later recalled, in the evenings, having finished his work, he often went to meetings with Tolstoy, trying to time them to coincide with his time. evening walks. The writer could tirelessly cover long distances; sometimes the interlocutors, carried away by the conversation, “went so far” that they had to hire a horse-drawn carriage for the return journey.
During his twenty-year acquaintance with Lev Nikolaevich, Repin visited both his Moscow apartment and Yasnaya Polyana, created several portraits of Tolstoy (the most famous are “L. N. Tolstoy at his desk” (1887), “L. N. Tolstoy in a chair with a book in his hands” (1887), “L. N. Tolstoy in the Yasnaya Polyana office under vaults" (1891)), as well as dozens of sketches and sketches; many of them remained in scattered albums.
Painting "L. N. Tolstoy on the arable land,” as the artist himself recalled, appeared on the day when Lev Nikolaevich volunteered to plow the field of a widow. Repin, who was in Yasnaya Polyana that day, “received permission to accompany him.” Tolstoy worked without rest for six hours, and Ilya Efimovich, with an album in his hands, recorded movements and “checked the contours and relationships of the sizes of the figures.”
Repin met philanthropist and founder of the Tretyakov Gallery Pavel Tretyakov while working on Barge Haulers. In 1872, having heard about interesting material brought by a graduate of the Academy of Arts from the Volga, Tretyakov arrived at Ilya Efimovich’s St. Petersburg studio and, introducing himself, studied the sketches hanging along the walls for a long time and with concentration. Two works attracted his attention - portraits of a watchman and a salesman. The entrepreneur halved the price set by Repin and left, promising to send a messenger for the sketches.
In Moscow, the business relationship that developed between Repin and Tretyakov gradually developed into friendship. The philanthropist visited Ilya Efimovich at home; if it was impossible to meet, they exchanged letters or short notes.
Sometimes Tretyakov suggested ideas to the artist for future works. So, it was he who suggested that Ilya Efimovich paint a portrait of the seriously ill and reclusive writer Alexei Pisemsky - as a result, the gallery was replenished with “an extraordinary work of art.”
In 1884, Repin received the first “state order”: he received an offer to paint the painting “Reception of volost elders by Alexander III in the courtyard of the Petrovsky Palace in Moscow” (the second title is “Speech of Alexander III to the volost elders”). Despite the fact that the word “order” was somewhat burdensome for the artist, the task assigned to him seemed interesting - in a letter to Pavel Tretyakov he reported: “This new topic It’s quite rich, and I like it, especially from the plastic side.” To create the background, the artist specially traveled to Moscow to prepare sketches in the courtyard of the Petrovsky Palace with the obligatory presence of the sun, the light of which served as the most important element of the composition.
The painting, which was completed in 1886, was located in the first hall of the second floor of the Grand Kremlin Palace. After the revolution, it was removed and put into storage, and the canvas by the artist Isaac Brodsky “Speech by V. I. Lenin at the Second Congress of the Comintern” was hung in the vacant place.
Repin's second wife was the writer Natalya Borisovna Nordman, who wrote under the pseudonym Severova. Their acquaintance took place in the artist’s studio, where Nordman came with Princess Maria Tenisheva. While Ilya Efimovich was working on the portrait of Tenisheva, another guest read poetry aloud. In the spring of 1900, Repin came to Paris art exhibition together with Natalya Borisovna, and at the end of the same year he moved to her Penaty estate, located in Kuokkala.
Korney Chukovsky, who, by his own admission, “closely observed” Nordman’s life for several years, believed that the artist’s second wife, through the efforts of some researchers, had created a reputation as an “eccentric of bad taste.” However, these “eccentricities” were based on sincere concern for her husband. From the moment she became close to Repin, Natalya Borisovna began to collect and systematize all information published in the press about Ilya Efimovich. Knowing that visits from numerous guests sometimes prevented him from concentrating on his work, she initiated the organization of so-called “Wednesdays,” thereby giving the artist the opportunity not to be distracted by visitors on other days of the week.
At the same time, as Chukovsky noted, Natalya Borisovna sometimes went too far in her innovative ideas. Thus, violently protesting against fur, she flatly refused to wear fur coats and in any frost she put on “some kind of thin coat.” Having heard that fresh hay infusions were good for health, Nordman introduced these drinks into her daily diet.
Students, musicians, and artist friends gathered for open “Wednesdays” in Penates, who never tired of being amazed that the serving of dishes at the table was regulated using mechanical devices, and the lunch menu included only vegetarian dishes and some grape wine, called “solar energy” " Announcements written by the hostess were hung everywhere in the house: “Don’t wait for the servants, there are none,” “Do everything yourself,” “The door is locked,” “Servants are a disgrace to humanity.”
Repin's second marriage ended dramatically: having fallen ill with tuberculosis, Nordman left the Penates. She went to one of the foreign hospitals without taking any money or things with her. Natalya Borisovna refused the financial assistance that her husband and his friends tried to provide her with. She died in June 1914 in Locarno. After Nordman's death, Repin handed over economic affairs in Penates to his daughter Vera.
After 1918, when Kuokkala became Finnish territory, Repin found himself cut off from Russia. In the 1920s, he became close to his Finnish colleagues and made considerable donations to local theaters and other cultural institutions - in particular, he donated a large collection of paintings to the Helsingfors Museum.
In 1925, Korney Chukovsky came to visit Repin. This visit gave rise to rumors that Korney Ivanovich was supposed to offer the artist to move to the USSR, but instead “secretly persuaded Repin not to return.” Decades later, letters from Chukovsky were discovered, from which it followed that the writer, who understood that his friend “should not leave” Penates in his old age, at the same time missed him very much and invited him to visit Russia.
A year later, a delegation of Soviet artists arrived in Kuokkala, headed by Repin’s student, Isaac Brodsky. They lived in Penates for two weeks. Judging by the reports of Finnish supervisory services, colleagues should have persuaded Repin to move to his homeland. The issue of his return was considered at the highest level: following the results of one of the Politburo meetings, Stalin passed a resolution: “Allow Repin to return to the USSR, instructing comrade. Lunacharsky and Ionov to take appropriate measures.”
In November 1926, Ilya Efimovich received a letter from People's Commissar Voroshilov, which said: “By deciding to move to your homeland, you are not only not making a personal mistake, but you are committing a truly great, historically useful deed.” Repin's son Yuri was also involved in the negotiations, but they ended without results: the artist remained in Kuokkala.
Further correspondence with friends testified to Repin's decline. In 1927, in a letter to Minchenkov, the artist said: “I will be 83 years old in June, time is taking its toll, and I am becoming quite lazy.” To help care for his weakening father, his youngest daughter Tatyana was called from Zdravnev, who later said that all his children took turns on duty near Ilya Efimovich until the very end.
Repin died on September 29, 1930 and was buried in the park of the Penata estate. In one of his last letters to his friends, the artist managed to say goodbye to everyone: “Farewell, goodbye, dear friends! I was given a lot of happiness on earth: I was so undeservedly lucky in life. It seems that I am not at all worth my fame, but I don’t talk about it I worked hard, and now, prostrate in the dust, I thank, thank you, completely moved good peace, who always glorified me so generously."