Portraits painted by Repin. Famous contemporaries of Repin in the photo and in painting: what were the people whose portraits were painted by the artist in real life

Ilya Efimovich Repin is one of the most prominent representatives of Russian painting of the 19th-20th centuries. As the artist himself claimed, art was with him always and everywhere and never left him.

The formation of the creative path of the artist

I. Repin was born in 1844 near Kharkov, in a Ukrainian village in Chuguevo, in the family of a retired military man. Native places have made an invaluable contribution to the formation of life and creative impressions of the beginning artist. While still in his teens, he studied topography at a military school, and a little later he took icon painting lessons from local masters. Ilya Repin carried his love for his native places throughout his life.

Having a fierce desire to be a painter, a young man at the age of 19 began his studies at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, from which a group of rebels led by I. Kramskoy had just graduated. In 1863, students defiantly refused to complete the qualifying task on the specified topic. It was a time of awakening of public consciousness, student unrest, hope for the future, under the influence of which the ideas and views of Ilya Efimovich were formed.

As a student, Repin attended creative "Thursday evenings", where he was furiously fond of drawing, reading new works and discussing the role of art. The works written while studying at the Academy are made in accordance with all the requirements and canons of academic drawing and painting. In the early works of the artist, one can trace the influence of the ideas and views of the participants in the Kramskoy rebellion, who proclaimed a close connection between art and life's requirements. From the very first works of the young artist, a huge creative potential, artistic possibilities and interests are noticeable.

Genre works of the artist

Gradually, Ilya Repin is increasingly moving away from academic productions and is fond of writing canvases that reveal the difficult fate of a humiliated people. This genre of paintings was contrary to academic guidelines, which is why the painter even wanted to quit his studies. He was dissuaded from this decision by offering a paid trip along the Volga, and then abroad.

One of the most famous works written in the early period of his creative activity is the painting "Barge Haulers on the Volga". The canvas, created during the years of study at the Academy of Arts, immediately brought fame to Repin. The hard life of barge haulers, vividly shown on the canvas, became the object of criticism. It took the artist about three years to create this painting. Masterfully selected composition and characters in the work reveal the breadth of the painter's creative abilities and his desire to penetrate into the very depths of characters and human feelings. The painting "Barge haulers on the Volga" was the beginning of the manifestation of a monumental character in the artist's works.

After receiving a gold medal for his graduation work "The Resurrection of the Daughter of Jairus", I. E. Repin continued to receive his education in France. Inspired by the works of old masters such as Velazquez, Rembrandt, Hals, and his contemporaries, the Impressionists, the Russian artist, along with large canvases, painted many plein-air studies. Close contact with nature brought the painter a noticeable creative upsurge. The impressions received in France found their echoes in Repin's canvases.

Returning to Russian lands in 1876, the artist fully reveals his creative abilities, working in all genres. During the most fruitful period of time, the famous work "The procession in the Kursk province" (1883) was created. A considerable part of the sketches for the picture was created near Moscow, in the estate of S. I. Mamontov. I. Repin "The procession" reveals the historical significance of religious processions in Russia, paying great attention to every detail. The work is a reflection of the experience of Russian democratic painting.

When creating his works, Ilya Efrimovich repeatedly turned to revolutionary themes. The painter reveals the spiritual significance of the individual, the beauty of his inner world in the portrait genre. Repin was engaged in writing portraits throughout his creative activity. Feeling the uniqueness of each person, the artist skillfully reproduced their character on the canvas. Portrait painting is an expression of awareness of the spiritual significance of the people.

Personal life and the last years of I. Repin's life

In 1887, a turning point began in the life of the great painter. Having dissolved the marriage with his wife V. Alekseeva, Repin left the art Association of traveling exhibitions. During these years, the artist's health began to deteriorate significantly.

Beginning in 1894 and for 13 years, Ilya Repin was the head of the workshop at the Academy of Arts. At the beginning of the 20th century, the artist received one of the largest orders for painting a multi-figured canvas of the Solemn Meeting. The area of ​​the work was 35 m². To create a picture, Repin wrote several dozen studies and sketches. Due to overwork, the artist's right hand began to fail, and he had to learn how to work with his left.

In 1899, Ilya Repin married a second time. His wife was Natalya Nordman. The artist spent the last thirty years of his life in his wife's estate in Finland. The outstanding painter died at the age of 86, leaving behind a great legacy of Russian painting.

Olga Mokrousova


Ilya Repin was one of the greatest portrait painters in the world of art. He created a whole gallery of portraits of his outstanding contemporaries, thanks to which we can draw conclusions not only about how they looked, but also what kind of people they were - after all, Repin is rightfully considered the subtlest psychologist who captured not only the external features of the posing, but also the dominant features their characters. At the same time, he tried to distract himself from his own attitude towards the posing person and to catch the inner deep essence of the personality. It is interesting to compare photographs of famous contemporaries of the artist with their portraits.



Maria Andreeva was not only one of the most famous actresses of the early twentieth century, but also one of the most beautiful and captivating women - of those who are called fatal. She was a fiery revolutionary and civil wife of Maxim Gorky, Lenin called her "comrade phenomenon." It was said that she was involved in the death of industrialist and philanthropist Savva Morozov. However, Repin managed to resist the charms of the actress - after all, she was the wife of his friend. Both of them were frequent guests at his estate and posed for portraits by the artist.



The writer Kuprin witnessed the creation of this portrait, and when the artist asked his opinion, he hesitated: “The question took me by surprise. The portrait is unsuccessful, it does not look like Maria Fedorovna. This big hat casts a shadow on her face, and then he (Repin) gave her face such a repulsive expression that it seems unpleasant. However, many contemporaries saw Andreeva just like that.



Ilya Repin was a fan of the composer Modest Mussorgsky and was his friend. He knew about the composer's alcohol addiction and the consequences for his health to which it led. When the artist heard that Mussorgsky was hospitalized in serious condition, he wrote a criticism of Stasov: “Here again I read in the newspaper that Mussorgsky is very ill. What a pity for this brilliant force, which so stupidly disposed of itself physically. Repin went to Mussorgsky in the hospital and within 4 days created a portrait that became a real masterpiece. The composer died 10 days later.



The friendship between Repin and Leo Tolstoy lasted 30 years, until the death of the writer. Although their views on life and art often diverged, they were very warm towards each other. The artist painted several portraits of Tolstoy's family members and created illustrations for his works. Repin portrayed both willpower, and wisdom, and kindness, and the calm greatness of the writer - the way he saw him. Tatyana Sukhotina, Tolstoy's eldest daughter, also visited the artist's house and also became the artist's model.



Once Repin was approached by the mother of an aspiring artist, Valentin Serov, with a request to see the work of her son. In this imperious woman, Repin saw the features of the adamant and proud princess Sofya Alekseevna. He had long been fond of the historical theme and wanted to paint Princess Sophia in custody, but could not find a model, and then she found him herself.





For a very long time, Repin had to convince his friend Pavel Tretyakov to pose for him for a portrait - the gallery owner was a very reserved and reserved person, he liked to remain in the shadows and did not want to be known by sight. Lost in the crowd of visitors to his exhibitions, he could, remaining unrecognized, hear their sincere reviews. Repin, on the contrary, believed that everyone should know Tretyakov as one of the most prominent cultural figures of the era. The artist depicted the gallery owner in his usual pose, absorbed in his thoughts. Closed hands indicate his usual isolation and aloofness. Contemporaries said that in life Tretyakov was as modest and extremely restrained as Repin portrayed him.



Everyone who was personally acquainted with the writer A.F. Pisemsky claimed that Repin was able to very accurately capture the defining features of his character. It is known that he was quite caustic and sarcastic in relation to the interlocutor. But the artist also caught other important details, he knew that the writer was sick and broken by the tragic circumstances of his life (one son committed suicide, the second was terminally ill), and he managed to capture traces of pain and longing in the writer's eyes.



With special warmth, Repin painted portraits of his loved ones. The portrait of his daughter Vera in the painting "Autumn Bouquet" is imbued with genuine tenderness.



An interesting story was hidden behind each portrait of Repin: a portrait, and


Today there is no dispute that Ilya Efimovich Repin is one of the greatest Russian painters. But his work was accompanied by one whole strange circumstance - many who were lucky enough to become his sitters soon went to another world. And although in each of the cases there were some objective reasons for death, the coincidences are alarming ...

“Beware of the painter’s brush - his portrait may turn out to be more alive than the original,” wrote Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim back in the 15th century. The work of the great Russian artist Ilya Repin was proof of this. Pirogov, Pisemsky, Mussorgsky, the French pianist Mercy d "Argento and other sitters became the "victims" of the artist. As soon as the master began to paint a portrait of Fyodor Tyutchev, the poet died. Even the healthy men who posed for Repin for the painting "Barge haulers on the Volga", according to rumors, prematurely gave their souls to God.

"Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan November 16, 1581"



Today this painting is known as . It was with this picture of Repin that a terrible story happened. When it was exhibited in the Tretyakov Gallery, the canvas made a strange impression on visitors: some fell into a stupor in front of the picture, others sobbed, and others had hysterical fits. Even the most balanced people felt uncomfortable in front of the picture: there was too much blood on the canvas, it looked very realistic.

On January 16, 1913, the young icon painter Abram Balashov cut the painting with a knife, for which he was sent to the "yellow" house, where he died. The painting has been restored. But the tragedy didn't end there. The artist Myasoedov, who posed for Repin for the image of the tsar, almost killed his son in a fit of anger, and the writer Vsevolod Garshin, the sitter for Tsarevich Ivan, went crazy and committed suicide.



In 1903, Ilya Repin completed the monumental painting The Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council. And in 1905, the First Russian Revolution happened, during which many government officials depicted in the picture laid down their heads. So, the former Governor-General of Moscow, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and Minister V.K. Plehve were killed by terrorists.

Portrait of Prime Minister Stolypin



The writer Korney Chukovsky recalled: “ When Repin painted my portrait, I jokingly told him that if I were a little more superstitious, I would never have dared to pose for him, because an ominous power lurks in his portraits: almost everyone he paints will, in the next few days dies. Wrote Mussorgsky - Mussorgsky died immediately. Wrote Pisemsky - Pisemsky died. And Pirogov? And Mercy d'Argento? And as soon as he wanted to paint a portrait of Tyutchev for Tretyakov, Tyutchev fell ill in the same month and soon died.
The humorist O. L. d "Or, who was present at this conversation, said in an imploring voice:
- In that case, Ilya Efimovich, do me a favor, please write to Stolypin!
Everyone laughed. Stolypin was prime minister at that time, and we hated him. Several months have passed. Repin told me:
“And this Hor of yours turned out to be a prophet. I am going to write Stolypin by order of the Saratov Duma
».

Repin did not immediately give his consent to the proposal to paint a portrait of the Prime Minister, he was looking for a variety of pretexts to refuse. But the Saratov Duma fulfilled all the requirements set by the artist, and it was simply inconvenient to refuse.

The artist decided to depict Stolypin not as a courtier in a uniform with orders and all the regalia, but in an ordinary suit. The portrait is evidence that Repin was interested in a person, and not a state person. Officiality and solemnity of the portrait gives only a dark red background.

After the first session, Repin told his friends: “Strange: the curtains in his office are red, like blood, like fire. I am writing it against this bloody fiery background. But he does not understand that this is the background of the revolution ... ”As soon as Repin finished the portrait, Stolypin left for Kyiv, where he was killed. “Thanks to Ilya Efimovich!”, the Satyricons joked evilly.

In 1918, the portrait entered the Radishevsky Museum of Saratov and has been there ever since.

"Portrait of the pianist Countess Louise Mercy d * Argento"



Another "victim" of Repin was Countess Louise Mercy d "Argento, whose portrait Repin painted in 1890. True, one should not forget that at that time the Frenchwoman, who first introduced the Western public to the music of the young Russian school, was seriously ill and even I couldn't pose while sitting.

Portrait of Mussorgsky


I.E. Repin. "Portrait of Mussorgsky

It was written by Repin in just four days - from March 2 to March 4, 1881. The composer died on March 6, 1881. True, it is hardly appropriate to talk about mysticism here. The artist arrived at the Nikolaevsky military hospital immediately after he learned about the fatal illness of a friend in the winter of 1881. He immediately hurried to him to paint a lifetime portrait. Here, fans of mysticism clearly confuse cause with effect.

These are mystical and not very stories associated with the paintings of Ilya Repin. Today, no one faints from his paintings, so you can safely go to the Tretyakov Gallery and other museums where his canvases are kept to enjoy the work of a true master of the brush.

The work of the Russian artist Ilya Repin is in a special place at home and abroad. The painter’s works are the brightest phenomenon in world culture, because the creator of the painting “Barge haulers on the Volga” was almost the first to feel the approach of the revolution, predicted the mood in society and displayed the heroism of the participants in the protest movement.

History, religion, social injustice, the beauty of man and nature - Repin covered all topics and realized his artistic gift in full. The artist's fruitfulness is amazing: Ilya Efimovich gave the world hundreds of canvases painted in the genre of realism. He did not stop drawing even in extreme old age, before his death, when his hands did not obey the master.

Childhood and youth

The master of Russian realism was born in the summer of 1844 in the Kharkov province. Childhood and youth were spent in the little Russian town of Chuguev, where Vasily Repin, the artist's grandfather, a non-serving Cossack, settled earlier. Vasily Efimovich kept an inn and traded.

Ilya Repin's father, the eldest of the children, sold horses, bringing herds over 300 miles from the Donshchina (Rostov region). Retired soldier Efim Vasilievich Repin participated in three military campaigns and lived in Slobozhanshchina until his last day.


Later, Ukrainian motifs in the work of Ilya Repin took an important place, the artist never broke ties with his small homeland.

The son was influenced by his mother, an educated woman and ascetic Tatyana Bocharova. For peasant children, a woman organized a school where she taught calligraphy and arithmetic. Tatyana Stepanovna read poetry aloud to children and, and when the family needed money, sewed fur coats with hare fur.


The artist in little Ilya was discovered by Uncle Trofim, who brought watercolors into the house. The boy saw how a black-and-white watermelon in the alphabet “came to life” under the brush, and disappeared for other classes. Ilya was hardly taken away from drawing so that he could eat.

At the age of 11, Ilya Repin was sent to a topographic school - the profession was considered prestigious. But when the educational institution was abolished after 2 years, the young artist got a job as a student in an icon-painting workshop. Here Repin was taught the basics of painting, and soon the contractors from the district bombarded the workshop with orders, asking them to send Ilya to them.


At 16, the creative biography of the young painter continued in the icon-painting artel, where Ilya Repin got a job for 25 rubles a month.

In the summer, artel workers traveled, looking for orders outside the province. In Voronezh, Repin was told about an artist from Ostrogozhsk who left his native land to study at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. In the fall, 19-year-old Ilya Repin, inspired by the example of Kramskoy, went to the northern capital.

Painting

The work of a young man from Chuguev came to the conference secretary of the academy. He, having familiarized himself, refused Ilya, criticizing him for his inability to draw shadows and strokes. Ilya Repin did not give up and remained in St. Petersburg. Having rented a room in the attic, the guy got a job in a drawing school, in the evening department. Soon teachers praised him as the most capable student.


The following year, Ilya Repin entered the academy. The St. Petersburg postal director and philanthropist Fyodor Pryanishnikov agreed to pay the student's tuition fee. 8 years at the academy brought the artist invaluable experience and acquaintance with talented contemporaries - Mark Antokolsky, and critic Vladimir Stasov, with whom life has been associated for decades. The painter from Chuguev called Ivan Kramskoy a teacher.

One of the most talented students of the Art Academy, Ilya Repin, received a medal for the painting "The Resurrection of the Daughter of Jairus." The biblical story could not be embodied on canvas, then Ilya remembered his sister who died as a teenager and imagined what facial expressions her relatives would have had if the girl had been resurrected. The picture came to life in the imagination and brought the first glory.


In 1868, a student, sketching sketches on the banks of the Neva, saw barge haulers. Ilya was struck by the abyss between the idly staggering public and draft manpower. Repin sketched the plot, but postponed the work: the graduation course was ahead. In the summer of 1870, the painter had the opportunity to visit the Volga and observe the work of barge haulers for the second time. On the shore, Ilya Repin met the prototype of a barge hauler, whom he depicted in the first three with a head tied with a rag.

The painting "Barge haulers on the Volga" made a sensation in Russia and Europe. Each of the painted workers bears the traits of individuality, character, experienced tragedy. The German art critic Norbert Wolf drew a parallel between Repin's painting and the procession of the damned from The Divine Comedy.


The fame of a talented painter from St. Petersburg reached Moscow. The philanthropist and businessman Alexander Porokhovshchikov (the ancestor of the famous Russian actor) commissioned a painting from Ilya Repin for the Slavyansky Bazaar restaurant. The artist set to work and in the summer of 1872 presented the finished work, which received praise and compliments.

In the spring of next year, Ilya Repin went on a trip to Europe, visited Austria, Italy and France. In Paris, he met with the Impressionists, the work inspired the creation of the painting “Parisian Cafe”. But the alien culture and manner of impressionism fashionable in France irritated the Russian realist. Drawing the picture "Sadko", in which the hero is in a strange underwater kingdom, Repin seemed to represent himself.



The canvas was shown at the exhibition of the Wanderers, but the interpretation of the plot was not to their liking. The tsar ordered not to allow work for exhibitions, but dozens of eminent people spoke out in defense of Repin's creation. The emperor lifted the ban.

The master presented the painting "They Didn't Wait" in 1888, and it was immediately recognized as another masterpiece. On the canvas, Ilya Repin masterfully conveyed the psychological portraits of the characters. The interior for the canvas was a dacha room in Martyshkino near St. Petersburg. The face of the protagonist Repin changed repeatedly, even when the picture was on display at the gallery. Ilya Repin secretly made his way into the hall and copied the face of an unexpected guest until he achieved the desired expression.


In the summer of 1880, the painter went to Little Russia, taking with him a student. In a creative binge, he painted everything: huts, people, clothes, household utensils. Repin was surprisingly close to the local cheerful people.

The result of the trip was the painting “Cossacks writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan” and “Gopak. Dance of the Zaporozhye Cossacks. The first work appeared in 1891, the second - in 1927. The work "Duel" Ilya Repin wrote in 1896. Tretyakov acquired it by placing the painting in a Moscow gallery, where it is kept today.


Royal orders occupy a special place in the artist's legacy. The first came to Ilya Repin in the mid-1880s from Alexander III. The tsar wished to see on the canvas the reception of volost elders. After the successful completion of the first order, the second one arrived. The painting "The ceremonial meeting of the State Council on May 7, 1901" was painted in 1903. Of the "royal" paintings, the "Portrait" is famous.


At the end of his days, the master worked in the Finnish Kuokkala, on the Penaty estate. Colleagues from the Soviet Union came to Finland to the elderly master, persuading him to move to Russia. But Repin, homesick, never returned.

A few years before his death, Repin lost his right hand, but Ilya Efimovich had no idea how to live without work. He wrote with his left hand, whose fingers soon ceased to obey the owner. But the disease did not become an obstacle, and Repin continued to work.


In 1918, Ilya Repin painted the painting "Bolsheviks", the plot of which is called anti-Soviet. For some time it was kept by an American collector, then the Bolsheviks got to and. In the 2000s, the owners put the collection up for the Sotheby's London auction.

In order to prevent the collection from being crushed, the Russian businessman bought all 22 canvases, including the Bolsheviks. The exposition is exhibited in the city on the Neva.

Personal life

The painter was married twice. The first wife Vera gave birth to her husband four children - three daughters and a son. In 1887, after 15 years of marriage, a painful separation followed. The older children stayed with their father, the younger ones with their mother.


Ilya Repin captured his relatives in portraits. In the painting "Rest" he depicted a young wife, dedicated the painting "Dragonfly" to his eldest daughter Vera, the painting "In the Sun" to the younger Nadia.

The second wife, writer and photographer Natalya Nordman, broke up with her family for the sake of marriage with Repin. It was to her that the painter went to Penates in the early 1900s.


Natalya Nordman, second wife of Ilya Repin

Nordmann died of tuberculosis in the summer of 1914. After her death, the management of the estate passed into the hands of her daughter Vera, who left the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater.

Death

In 1927, Ilya Repin complained to his friends that his strength was leaving him, he was becoming a "uniform lazybones." In the last months before his death, next to his father were children who took turns on duty at the bedside.


The artist, who celebrated 86 years in August, died in September 1930. He was buried in the estate "Penates". There are 4 museums of the artist in Russia and the CIS countries, the most famous one is in Kuokkale, where he spent the last three decades.

Artworks

  • 1871 - "The Resurrection of the Daughter of Jairus"
  • 1873 - "Barge haulers on the Volga"
  • 1877 - "The Man with the Evil Eye"
  • 1880-1883 - "Religious procession in the Kursk province"
  • 1880-1891 - "The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan"
  • 1881 - "Portrait of the composer M.P. Mussorgsky"
  • 1884 - "They didn't wait"
  • 1884 - "Dragonfly"
  • 1885 - "Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on November 16, 1581"
  • 1896 - "Duel"
  • 1896 - "Portrait of Emperor Nicholas II"
  • 1903 - The Last Supper
  • 1909 - "Self-immolation of Gogol"
  • 1918 - "Bolsheviks"
  • 1927 - "Gopak. Dance of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks»

Ilya Efimovich Repin (1844-1930) - artist.

In 1863, Ilya Repin graduated from the drawing school of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists in St. Petersburg. His teacher was I.N. Kramskoy, who had a great "realistic" influence on him. The following year, Repin entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, from which he graduated in 1871, receiving a Grand Gold Medal for competitive work.

In the spring of 1873, Repin went abroad. First to Italy, then to France. The artist returned to Russia in the summer of 1876. On the new European painting I.E. Repin wrote: "The French are not at all interested in people. Costumes, colors, lighting - that's what attracts them." He was overcome by the citizenship of art.

In the 1870-1880s. I.E. Repin created canvases with incredible dramatic content. Among them are "Barge haulers on the Volga", "Cossacks write a letter", "The arrest of a propagandist", "". It was the rise of the artist.

In the 1890s Repin experienced a creative crisis. He tried to turn to "pure" art, rejected many years ago, but failed. New talents appeared Serov, Vrubel, Korovin. The ceremonial meeting of the State Council was left to his share.

The great artist Ilya Efimovich Repin died in September 1930 in his estate "Penates" in Finland and was buried in the garden next to the house. I.E. Repin: "I am a man of the 60s. I strive to personify my ideas in truth, the surrounding life worries me too much."

Repin's biography

  • 1844. July 24 (August 5) - Ilya Repin was born in the village of Chuguev, Kharkov province.
  • 1852-1855. Teaching literacy, calligraphy and the law of God from the sexton of the Osinov church and arithmetic from the deacon V.V. Yarovitsky.
  • 1855. Apprenticeship at the topographical school.
  • 1858. Studying with the icon painter I.M. Bunakov.
  • 1859-1863. Church painting and commissioned portraits. Portrait of the father - E.V. Repin.
  • 1863. November 1 - Repin's arrival in St. Petersburg. Drawing school at the Stock Exchange. Acquaintance with the Shevtsov family, with nine-year-old Vera, who later became his wife. December 2 - the first self-portrait. Acquaintance with Kramskoy.
  • 1864. January - admission as a volunteer to the Academy of Arts. September 7 - Repin became a student of the Academy.
  • 1865. May 8 - Repin was awarded the title of a free artist, which freed him from taxation and from corporal punishment.
  • 1866. Repin's presence at the execution of Karakozov. Drawing by Karakozov from memory. Friendship with artel of artists.
  • 1867. Trip to Chuguev. Mother's portrait. Portrait of brother Vasily.
  • 1869. Portrait of V.A. Shevtsova. Acquaintance with V.V. Stasov.
  • 1870. Summer - a trip to the Volga with F. Vasiliev, brother and academic comrade Makarov. Sketches for the painting "Barge haulers".
  • 1871. On November 2, at the annual exam for the painting "The Resurrection of the Daughter of Jairus", Repin received the Big Gold Medal and the right to a six-year trip abroad at public expense.
  • 1871-1872. December-May - painting "Slavic composers".
  • 1872. February 11 - marriage to V.A. Shevtsova. Autumn is the birth of Vera's daughter.
  • 1873. "Barge Haulers" completed. Trip abroad. Vienna, Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples, Albano. October - Repin in Paris.
  • 1874. Rented an apartment and workshop in Paris. In summer, sketches and landscapes are painted in Normandy. Autumn - daughter Nadia was born in Paris.
  • 1875. Sketches for the painting "Paris Cafe" and the painting itself. In July - Repin's trip to London.
  • 1876. January-May - "Sadko". July - return to St. Petersburg. July-September - Repin lived in a dacha in Krasnoe Selo near St. Petersburg. There he painted a group family portrait "On a turf bench". October - Repin went with his family through Moscow to Chuguev, where he lived until August of the following year.
  • 1877. March 29 - son Yuri was born. September - Repins in Moscow.
  • 1878. February 17 - Repin was notified of his acceptance as a member of the Association of Traveling Exhibitions. September - the Repin family moved permanently to St. Petersburg.
  • 1879. Summer in Abramtsevo. September - Repin's mother died. Father's portrait.
  • 1880. July 25 - daughter Tatyana was born, the only one of the children who continued the artist's family. October 7 - acquaintance of I.E. Repin with L.N. Tolstoy in an apartment in B. Trubny Lane.
  • 1882. Summer - Repin at the dacha in Khotkovo near Moscow. September - moving to St. Petersburg.
  • 1881-1883. Trip abroad: Berlin, Dresden, Munich, Paris, Holland, Madrid, Venice.
  • 1887. May-June - a trip abroad: Vienna, Venice, Rome. August 9-16 - Ilya Repin at Tolstoy's in Yasnaya Polyana. A break with his wife Vera Alekseevna Repina, with whom he had three daughters and a son. Exit from the Association of Wanderers.
  • 1889. Portraits of the artist E.N. Zvantseva, whom Repin was passionate about. Trip to the World Exhibition in Paris.
  • 1891. November - the first personal exhibition of Repin for the twentieth anniversary of his creative activity. For the first time "Cossacks" and "Arrest of the propagandist" are shown. Bought the Zdravnevo estate in the Vitebsk province.
  • 1892. January-February - Repin's personal exhibition in Moscow.
  • 1893. November 25 - Repin received the title of professor of painting. May-September - Repin in his estate in Zdravnev. Autumn-winter - Vienna, Munich, Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples. December 1 - I.E. Repin was approved as a full member of the Academy of Arts.
  • 1894. Summer - Repin in Zdravnev. September 1 - I.E. Repin took over the leadership of the painting workshop of the Academy.
  • 1898. Acquaintance in Paris with Natalya Borisovna Nordman-Severova.
  • 1899. Repin married N.B. Nordman-Severova and acquired land in the village of Kuokkala in Finland in her name, on which he built the Penaty estate.
  • 1900. Trip from Nordman-Severovaya to Paris for the World Exhibition. Moving to Penates.
  • 1905. Showing a portrait of M. Gorky at an exhibition in the Tauride Palace. Right hand failure. Repin switched to writing with his left hand.
  • 1907. November 1 - after thirteen years of teaching, Repin finally left the Academy.
  • February 20, 1914 - Repin took Nordman to Switzerland for treatment. June 28 - death of N.B. Nordman from tuberculosis. Repin's daughters arrived at Penates, who did not visit the estate in the presence of Nordman.
  • 1917. The village of Kuokkala ended up abroad, and Repin became an emigrant.
  • 1919. October - Repin donated to the Finnish Art Society 7 of his own works and 23 paintings by Russian artists. Several dozen portraits were painted.
  • 1924. March 22 - Repin received a residence permit in Finland.
  • 1925. I. Gintsburg, I. Brodsky, P. Bezrukikh and K. Chukovsky came to Repin to persuade him to leave for Russia. Exhibitions in Helsinki, Stockholm, Nice, Prague.
  • 1930. September 29 - Ilya Efimovich Repin died.

Paintings and portraits of Repin

Repin's genre and historical paintings are always psychological tension and drama.

The arrest of the propagandist
Barge Haulers on the Volga
Gogol burns the manuscript
Cossacks write a letter
What space
Red Army soldier taking away bread
Procession in the Kursk province
Manifestation October 17, 1905
Pushkin's farewell to the sea
Pushkin at the lyceum exam
Slavic composers
Solemn meeting

Following Perov and Kramskoy, Repin created a gallery of images of prominent people of his time. These are portraits of writers, composers, artists, scientists. "In portraits, Repin reached the highest point of his pictorial power. Some of them are directly striking in the temperament with which they are written." (From the article "The History of Russian Painting in the 19th Century" by the artist N.A. Benois).

M.I. Glinka

Contemporaries about Repin

  • "For his era, for his generation, Repin played an extremely important, innovative role in Russian art, abandoning the conditional academicism of previous years and throwing his paintings with courageous, still unseen strokes of his brush at that time. Repin has always been and remained an advanced person and, perhaps This may be why he refused to reconcile with the Soviet system, despite the frequent delegations that the Soviet government sent to him in Kuokkala, which still belonged to Finland, with all sorts of proposals. (Yu.P. Annenkov).
  • "The Communists usurped the name of Repin, proclaiming him the harbinger or even the founder of the unfortunate "socialist realism" which in free countries is sure to cause laughter at exhibitions of Soviet art. They did this in order to lean on someone's authoritative name, as Lenin relied on Marx and how today's communists rely on Lenin. Repin died thirty years ago and therefore did not have time to refute the slander erected against him. But it is enough to hang Repin's paintings next to the paintings of Johanson, Gerasimovs, Efanov, Yablonskaya or some Plastov, so that the lies and nonsense of this statements became quite obvious.I have no doubt, however, that many young artists in the Soviet Union fully agree with me and see in Repin a great artist, and not an official in the service of communist propaganda, with which he never had any ideological or practical ties ". (Yu.P. Annenkov).
  • “Repin was seventy years old, and he came to my dacha from noon to hide from those delegations that, as he knew from the newspapers, were to come to him with congratulations. Shortly before that, in the same year, she died in Switzerland Natalya Borisovna Nordman, and Repin was left alone in Penaty.To avoid the anniversary celebrations, he locked his workshop with a key and in a festive light gray suit, with a rose in his buttonhole and with a mourning ribbon on his hat, went up the stairs to my room and asked for the holiday read Pushkin to him. At that time, director N. N. Evreinov and artist Y. Annenkov were sitting with me. Repin treated both sympathetically. We warmly congratulated him and, fulfilling his wish, I took Pushkin and began to read. Repin sat down to the table and immediately began to draw. Annenkov, a native of Kuokkala, perched behind him and began to sketch Repin. Repin liked it: he always liked to work in company with other artists. With me, he worked more than once with Elena Kiseleva, then with Kustodiev, now with Brodsky, now with Paolo Trubetskoy.

    All the time Ilya Efimovich remained calm, joyfully quiet and friendly. Only one circumstance embarrassed him: several times my children ran to reconnaissance in the Penates and always returned with the news that no delegations had arrived. This was strange, since we knew in advance that the Academy of Arts, the Academy of Sciences, and many other institutions were to send delegates to honor the seventy-year-old Repin.

    Even the day before, heaps of telegrams began to arrive in the Penates in the morning. And on the very day of celebrations - not a single telegram, not a single congratulation! We didn't know what to think for a long time. But in the evening, a neighbor in the dacha came, out of breath, and said quietly:

    Everyone jumped up from their seats, got excited and started talking, interrupting each other, about the Kaiser, about the Germans, about Serbia, about Franz Josef ... The Repin holiday immediately turned out to be relegated to the past. Repin frowned, tore his birthday rose from his buttonhole and got up to leave immediately. "(K.I. Chukovsky).

Repin in Moscow

  • Swamp area. In 1958, a monument to Repin was opened on it. Sculptor M.G. Manizer, architect I.E. Rozhin. In 1962-1993 The square was named after Ilya Efimovich Repin.
  • Lavrushinsky, 10. Tretyakov Gallery. In the 1880s P.M. Tretyakov bought the first paintings for the gallery from Ilya Repin. Among them are "The procession in the Kursk province", "They did not wait" and "Tsar Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan." Khitrovsky, 2. Myasnitskaya police station. Doctor D.P. lived and worked in the house. Kuvshinnikov. T.L. often visited his apartment on the second floor. Shchepkina-Kupernik, A.P. Chekhov, I.I. Levitan. During his visits to Moscow, I.E. Repin.
  • Trubny B., 9. In the house of Baroness A.A. Simolin Ilya Repin rented an apartment in 1879-1882. At one time, Valentin Serov lived in his apartment, to whom I.E. Repin gave painting lessons. Here in 1880 the first meeting of the artist with L.N. Tolstoy. In 1882, Ilya Repin arranged drawing evenings in his apartment with the participation of Polenov, Surikov, Ostroukhov.

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