Ilya Yefimovich Repin was a Ukrainian-born Russian painter. He became one of the most renowned artists in Russia in the 19th century. His major works include Barge Haulers on the Volga (1873), Religious Procession in Kursk Province (1880–1883), Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan (1885), and Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (1880–1891). Repin is also known for the revealing portraits he made of the leading Russian literary and artistic figures of his time, including Mikhail Glinka, Modest Mussorgsky, Pavel Tretyakov, and especially Leo Tolstoy, with whom he had a long friendship.
Paintings by Ilya Repin
Barge Haulers on the Volga (1870)
Barge Haulers on the Volga or Burlaki (Russian: Бурлаки на Волге, Burlaki na Volge) is an 1870–1873 oil-on-canvas painting by Russian realist artist Ilya Repin. It depicts 11 men (burlaki) hauling a barge along the banks of the Volga River. They are at the point of collapse from exhaustion, oppressed by heavy, hot weather.
Although they are presented as stoical and accepting, the men are defeated; only one stands out: in the center of both the row and canvas, a brightly colored youth fights against his leather binds and takes on a heroic pose.
Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (1890)
Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks is a painting by Ukrainian-born Russian realist artist Ilya Repin. It is also known as Cossacks of Saporog Are Drafting a Manifesto and Cossacks are Writing a Letter to the Turkish Sultan.
Repin began painting the canvas in 1880 and finished in 1891. His study drawings he made in stanitsa Pashkovskaya (today within Krasnodar), Yekaterinoslav (today Dnipro), and Kachanivka.
They Did Not Expect Him (1888)
They Did Not Expect Him (Russian: Не ждали, lit. 'Didn't expect') is a painting by realist artist Ilya Repin made between 1884 and 1888. It depicts the return of a narodnik from exile and his family's reaction. The painting is part of Repin's "Narodniki" series, which includes four other artworks.
Repin began working on early versions of the canvas in 1884, at his country house in Martyshkino. He displayed it the same year in the 12th travelling exhibition of the Peredvizhniki, a group of Russian realist artists who travelled around Russia to host art exhibitions, first in Saint-Petersburg and then in other cities of Russia. It was purchased by Pavel Tretyakov in 1885 for display in his gallery. However, Repin continued to work on the painting after it was purchased, making several changes in 1885, 1887 and 1888, primarily to the face of the man entering the room.
Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan (1883)
Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on 16 November 1581 is a painting by Russian realist artist Ilya Repin made between 1883 and 1885. It depicts the grief-stricken Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible cradling his dying son, the Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich, shortly after Ivan the Terrible had dealt a fatal blow to his son's head in a fit of anger. The painting portrays the anguish and remorse on the face of the elder Ivan and the shock and heartbreak of the dying Tsarevich, who sheds a tear at the unexpected betrayal and shock of having been killed at his father's hands.
Repin used Grigoriy Myasoyedov, his friend and fellow artist, as the model for Ivan the Terrible, and writer Vsevolod Garshin for the Tsarevich. In 1885, upon completion of the oil-on-canvas work, Repin sold it to Pavel Tretyakov for display in his Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.
Religious Procession in Kursk Governorate (1880)
Religious Procession in Kursk Governorate (also known as Easter Procession in the District of Kursk or A Religious Procession in Kursk Gubernia') (Russian: Крестный ход в Курской губернии) is a large oil on canvas painting by Russian realist artist Ilya Repin (1844–1930). Completed between 1880 and 1883, the work shows a seething, huddled mass attending the annual crucession (cross-carrying Eastern Orthodox religious procession) which carried the famous icon Our Lady of Kursk from its home at the Korennaya Pustyn Monastery to the nearby city of Kursk, western Russia.
The procession is led through a dusty landscape by robed, Orthodox priests holding icons, festoons and banners over their heads. Behind them follow a crowd mostly of peasants, but ranging from beggars and disabled people, police and military officers to figures from the provincial elite. Religious Procession led to controversy when first exhibited due to the icon being held by a man who appears to be drunk.
Sadko (painting) (1876)
Sadko, also known as Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom (Russian: Садко в Подводном царстве, romanized: Sadko v Podvodnom tsarstve), is an oil-on-canvas painting by Ilya Repin, made in 1876 during a visit to France. Based on a Russian epic poem, it depicts the merchant and musician Sadko who must choose one of the daughters of the Sea Tsar to marry.
Tsesarevich Alexander Alexandrovich, the future Tsar Alexander III, bought the painting which is in the collection of the Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg.
Ceremonial Sitting of the State Council on 7 May 1901 Marking the Centenary of its Foundation (1903)
Ceremonial Sitting of the State Council on 7 May 1901 Marking the Centenary of its Foundation (Russian: Торжественное заседание Государственного совета 7 мая 1901 года в день столетнего юбилея со дня его учреждения) is an oil on canvas painting of 1903 by the Ukrainian artist Ilya Ripyn. The State Council (Russian Empire) had its centenary at the Mariinsky Palace marked by Ripyn's work. Ripyn quickly sketched while in the room, and later expanded this into the full painting with the aid of assistants Boris Kustodiev and Ivan Kulikov. The photorealism of the painting was noted in its time.
Portrait of M. P. Mussorgsky (1881)
Portrait of M. P. Mussorgsky is an 1881 oil painting by Russian realism painter Ilya Repin depicting composer, Modest Mussorgsky. Its dimensions are 58.5 cm x 71.8 cm (23 1/32 in x 38 9/32 in), and it's located at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, Russia, with the inventory number, 730. It was painted merely days prior to the composer's death.
Repin was initially requested to paint the work by Vladimir Stasov. He painted it at Nikolaevsky Military Hospital over the span of four sittings. They took place between 14 and 17 March 1881 O.S., or 2 and 5 March 1881 N.S. Repin used a desk to create the portrait due to the unavailability of an easel at the hospital.
Saint Nicholas of Myra saves three innocents from death (1888)
Saint Nicholas of Myra saves three innocents from death is a painting by Russian artist Ilya Repin (1844–1930), completed in 1888. It is held at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg (Inventory Zh-4001). The dimensions of the painting are 215 × 196 cm. The narrative of the painting is linked to one of the deeds of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker (of Myra), whose courageous and principled actions helped to prevent the execution of three innocent people. The relevance of this theme was linked to Leo Tolstoy's moral teachings and the debate surrounding the abolition of the death penalty.
The canvas was presented at the 17th exhibition of the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions ("Peredvizhniki"), which opened in February 1889 in St Petersburg. The critical response to the painting was mixed. The writer Mitrofan Remezov praised Repin's Saint Nicholas as the best of all the paintings presented at the exhibition "both in idea and execution", while Leo Tolstoy noted that the content of the canvas was "not artistic, not new, not dear to the author", "the whole picture is without focus, and all the figures crawl apart". The painting was purchased by Emperor Alexander III, and the decision to establish the Russian Museum was subsequently attributed to this purchase on numerous occasions.
Grand Duchess Sofia at the Novodevichy Convent (1879)
Grand Duchess Sofia at the Novodevichy Convent (1698)
Autumn Bunch (1892)
Autumn Bunch. Portrait of Vera Ilyinichna Repina, the Artist's Daughter
Bolsheviks (1918)
Красноармеец, отнимающий хлеб у ребёнка (Большевики)