Ilya Repin: "whisperings" about an open Russian Secret.

Born July 24 1844 in Chuguev, Russian Empire (now the Ukraine).
Father, Efim Vasileyvich, military officer known at the time as "military settler" married to Tatiana Stepanova.
Childhood of poverty, hardship and tragedy.
Brother to two younger Brothers (one died aged 10 the other (Vasily Repin) became a well respected flutist in St Petersburg) and one older sister (died aged 15).
1930, 29 September, Repin dies aged 86
1855, age 11: learns drafting and coloring in Chuguev'School of Military Topography.
1857, age 13: studies icon painting with Bukanov in Chuguev.
1859, age 15. Went his own way and makes money through commission work (provincial churches needing icons painted and other decorative work)
1863, age 19, he has made and saved enough money to move to St Petersburg. Attends the Drawing school as well as lectures at the Academy. He has one goal in mind: entering the Imperial Academy of Arts.
1864, Repin is accepted in to the Imperial Academy. In the same year he is award the Minor Silver Medal first step towards his being awarded the Major Gold Medal in November 1871. This was also a stepping-stone: as a direct result one of his paintings was displayed for the first time "Preparing for Examination". Both the Major Silver Medal and Minor Gold Medal were won in 1867 & 1869 respectively.
1870 visit to the Volga river region%u2026foundation for the "Barge Haulers on the Volga". (First major painting completed after his graduation in 1871)
1871 Major Gold Medal received for "Christ raising Jarius's Daughter". This won him a 6-year scholarship from the Imperial Academy to travel and learn abroad.
February 1872, aged 28, Repin marries 17-year-old Vera Shevtsova.
1873 to 1876 spent 3 months traveling Italy and then settled to live for 3 years in a rented studio in Montmartre, Paris,France.
Discovers the Impressionists while in Paris.
1876 returns to St Petersburg. Completes "Sadko"
1877 Moves and settles in Moscow until September 1882.
1878, Repin joins the Freethinking Artist Group known as the "Society of Peredvizhniki" (formed in 1870). Also known as the Itinerants or the Wanderers.
1880 Begins working on "Zaporozhian Cossacks of Ukraine writing a letter in reply to the Sultan of Turkey".
The 1880's are explosive years for Russian Art. This is also the decade in which Russia's intelligentsia enthusiastically accept Repin.
1882 returns to St.Petersburg with his wife and daughter.
1884 separates from his wife.
1889 completion of his most psychologically intense painting " Ivan the Terrible"
1891, resigns from the Society of Peredvizhniki because of the Society's new policy restricting young artists from joining.
November 1891, 298 of his paintings exhibited along with the work of fellow artist Ivan Shishkin.
1892, One man show at Moscow's historic Museum.
1894 (aged 50) Repin is appointed instructor at the High Art School (attached to the Imperial Academy). A position as Professor of Historical Painting at St Petersburg.
1896, Repin is in Moscow for Nicholas II's Coronation. He painted two compositions for the Coronation Album.
1897, February, rejoin the Itinerants.
May 1899, buys his estate outside of St Petersburg. Names it Penaty.

1900. It is alleged that it is during a trip to Paris that Repin met Natalia Nordman, the "love of his life". She moves to his home Penaty, in Kuokkala (then Finland).
1901 receives the Legion of Honor from France
1902 elected member of the Academy of Sciences, Literature and Fine Arts in Prague.
1904 elected honorary member of the Moscow Literature and Artistic Society.
1907 resigns for good from the Academy of Arts and now lives full time in Penaty.
1914 Death of Natalia Borisovna.
1914-1918 Lived at Penaty during the Russian Revolution and the second World War.
1916 Publications of his memoirs "Far & Near".
1917 Finland declares independance.
1927 Finishes his last painting "Dance of the Gopacks"
1930 29 September, Repin dies age 87.

The Barge Haulers was created by Repin over a period of three years, from 1870-1873.
Repins' most famous painting.
This work brought him instant recognition and established his fame.
This was the first painting done by Repin after leaving the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersbug.
The inspiration for the piece came to him when visiting the Volga region where he spent 3 months with his brother Vasily and friends. He took a boat trip down the Volga. Familiarising himself with the lives of the barge haulers. He observed them, sketched them and completed preliminary studies for the piece. The final version was completed in 1873 which was then exhibited at the Imperial Academy with a bang. The painting made Repin famous overnight.
This canvas is also known as "The Bargemen on the Volga", "Volga Boatmen","Barge Haulers" and "The Volga Barge-Haulers."

Shown here is the final version.
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Size: 131.5 × 281 cm.
Location: The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.

After three years in Paris, Repin returned to Russia where he painted a number of peasant portraits and everyday subjects.
His choice of subjects (peasants, non-ornate everyday elements...) move him away from the established tradition of portraying classic mythological themes .
He excelled as well as found long lasting inspiration in vividly representing everyday life and emotions no matter how humble, painting a social realism that the Russian's identified with.

In 1878, Repin joins the Freethinking Artist Group known as the "Society of Peredvizhniki" (formed in 1870).
The group was also known as the Itinerants or the Wanderers.
They broke away from the Imperial Academy of Arts because they felt that art should serve a social purpose. Revolting against the system of patronage of the arts and circulated their work throughout the provinces (hence the name wanderers-itinerants) bringing their art to the middles classes. This was not only a new audience but also a novel way of reaching it.
Their art was humanistic. Repin,like the other Society members, valued physical labour, real-life situations as worthy subjects.
Names such as (to name but a few) Kramskoi, Levitan, Savrasov, Maximov, Makovsky or Vasnetsov can be directly linked to this group.

"They didn't Expect him" (1884-1888)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 160x167 cm
Location: The Tretayokov Museum -St Petersburg.

"I am inclined to think that Abramtsevo is the best dacha in the world - almost ideal," Extract from letter the the Russian painter's friend.
1877, during one of his first visits to the estate near Moscow belonging to his friend the industrialist Savva Mamontov.
The following year, in a letter to the critic Vladimir Stasov, Repin described his life there: "I have been living with my entire family at the Mamontovs' for more than a month. Our life is very easy - the air is magical ..

In my mind, one of his strongest works was created during this prosperous period. "A Bridge in Abramtsevo". Illustrated here for your viewing pleasure.
"Bridge in Abramtsevo "by Ilya Repin 1879
Summer landscape (Vera Alekseyevna Repina on a bridge in Abramtsevo).

Medium:Oil on canvas.
Size:38 × 61 cm.
Location: A. S. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts -
Private Collections Department, Moscow.
and
"Abramtsevo" 1880
Summer day in Abramtsevo.
Oil on canvas. 52.2 × 49 cm.
The State Memorial History, Art and Natural Museum Reserve V. D. Polenov, Polenovo (Tula province).

In 1892, Emperor Alexander III bought "The reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mahmoud IV" for a healthy 35000 rubles (a fortune for the time).

The painter decided to use the proceeds to find a country retreat. After rejecting options outside the capital he found and bought Zdranevo.
"People say he was struck by the wild beauty of the rapid and turbulent river Dvina when he first arrived here on May 1st. Without much bargaining, he laid out a handsome 12 thousand imperial rubles for a package which included a decrepit mansion with outhouses, 270 acres of land with some forest, ploughing fields and 40 head of cattle." (facts taken from details given by the curator of the Museum in Zdravnevo: Valeri Shishakov)
Several years of reconstruction guided by the artist's own blueprints, turned the mansion into a small fairytale castle.

In July 1892, Repin wrote a letter to art critic Stasov, "I live here like an ancient Greek from the 'Odyssey'. My only work is with spade to turn earth and stones. Sisyphus often comes to my mind. I also wish I was Antheus with his miraculous ability to derive strength from earth. This would rebuild me from my bodily ruin in St Petersburg."

The important point that has to be made about his life here is the change in his brush work. His colours are vibrant and his brush stroke looser.
He started open-air painting and produced to my mind two of his most beautiful works.
"An Autumn Bouquet" - portrait of his daughter Vera painted in the orchard outside the main house in Zdravnevo.
"Moonlit Night" illustrated here.

"Moonlit night" 1896 by Ilya Repin
Zdravnevo.
Oil on canvas. 143 × 90.4 cm.
The National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus, Minsk.

In 1901 Repin left Zdravnevo to live in his estate which he bought in Kuokkala in the Grand Duchy of Finland. He named it Penaty after the Roman household gods.
After the 1917 October revolution Penaty was now in Finland. Finland having received its independence from the Russian Empire in 1918.
Repin decided to stay on in Kuokkala despite being asked by various Soviet Institutions to return to his homeland.
He refused the invitations saying he was too old to make the move. He never returned to Russia.

His life at Penaty saw his later years, years as a mature artist who was still bestowed national and international accolades. He received the Legion of Honor from France in 1901, elected member of the Academy of Sciences, literature and fine arts in Prague in 1902. 1904 saw him elected as honorary member of the Moscow Literary and Artistic Society. During this time he wa still teaching at the Academy in ST Petersburg (he resigned briefly in 1905).
In 1907 Repin left the Academy as a teacher( this time for good) he was now 63 years old.
Finding he had more time on his hands which he continued painting with, he also began writing.
He wrote various articles (one commemorating the 100th anniversary of the writer Nikolai Gogol and two which where highly critical of modern art.)
In 1916 he published his memoir's "Far & Near".

Artistically he was still very active, he painted until the end of his life. He was unfortunately,in these later years, handicapped by the atrophy of his right hand. Repin could not produce works of the same quality as those that brought him fame. Although he trained himself to paint with his left hand, he lived his last years under a constant financial strain.
The self portrait shown here cleary shows the contraption he made to attach his palette as he was unable to hold it in his hand because of the strain.

His last painting was rendered in 1927, a big vibrant, joyful canvas based on an Ukrainian Cossack theme: "The dance of the Gopacks".

Repin passed away on the 29th September 1930.
He is buried in Penates.

In 1939, the Soviet Army reacquired Kuokalla and as a result named the village "Repino".

Hearing a whisper and responding through plain curiosity has resulted in a journey through time, discovering in its midst a man of humble origins. A man following a gift, living a destiny.
Ilya Repin kept a firm hold of his roots using them as a muse.
In doing so he created work with such strength and truth that he was able to bond with the very soul of his culture.
He was through and through a realist, rebelling against the constraints of academic tradition.
He followed what he knew.
He followed his reality, his life both past and present for inspiration.
He made no distinction to creed or class.
He painted Tzars and peasants with the same care and attention, with the same palette.

Over his long and phenomenal career he never lost his soul. He kept his integrity and worked hard, never resting on his laurels.
He was a prolific artist.
His specialty and heart lay in realism with no class distinction, with no social boundaries.

Discovering his legacy has also meant discovering a world of poor and rich, of workers and thinkers, musicians and generals.
A world where feelings of awe and wonderment share the same platform as feelings of horror and shock.

Repin was not only a great Master painter, professor, director and writer.
He was also a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a lover and a friend.
The bottom line: Repin was a dedicated artist, a man with a vision, a man with a deep understanding of his Russia and the human race.