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OTHER RUSSIAN ARTISTS
Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935
Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
WORLDS TOP ARTISTS
For top creative practitioners, see:
Best Artists of All Time.
For the greatest view painters, see:
Best Landcape Artists.
For the greatest still life art, see:
Best Still Life Painters.
For the greatest portraitists
see: Best Portrait Artists.
For the greatest genre-painting, see:
Best Genre Painters.
For the top allegorical painting,
see: Best History Painters.
WORLD'S BEST ART
For a list of the best examples of
Fine Art Painting, by the
world's top artists, see below:
Greatest Paintings Ever
Oils, watercolours, mixed
media from 1300-present.
Oil Painting
History, styles and development.
WHAT IS ART?
For an explanation of the
aesthetic issues surrounding
the creative visual arts, see:
Art Definition, Meaning
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Repin graduated from the Academy in 1871,
winning the Major Gold Medal for his diploma work Raising of Jairus'
Daughter (1871; State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg). He immediately
followed this with his first masterpiece, the genre-painting Barge
Haulers on the Volga (1870-1873; State Russian Museum, St.Petersburg),
which gained him immediate recognition as one of the leading young Russian
artists.
In 1873, Repin used the stipend he won
with his Gold Medal Award to study abroad. He travelled through Italy
before settling in Paris until 1876. It was here that he witnessed the
first of the Impressionist
Exhibitions, but, judging by the works he painted during this period
and by comments in his letters home, he was not particularly impressed
by this new form of modern art. His background
and culture was grounded in the Ukrainian countryside, and his art was
already strongly seeped in Russian Realism. That said, he was a perceptive
enough artist to absorb the painterly qualities of French Impressionism,
notably its depiction of light and use of colour.
On his return to Russia in 1876, Repin
settled in Moscow, becoming a regular visitor to Abramtsevo, the country
estate of Savva Mamontov, one of the most famous Russian patrons of art
of the late 19th Century. The following 10-12 years was his most active
period as an artist, a period that witnessed the creation of most of his
famous works. He began in 1877, with a series of religious processions
(krestny khod), such as Krestny Khod (Religious Procession) in Kursk
Gubernia (1880-1883; Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow) - a composition based
on the dramatic effect of the differing social rank and attitude of the
members of the procession, all seemingly united by the miracle-working
icon carried at its head. The painting may be interpreted as depicting
the slow but relentless forward movement of the multi-cultural Russian
state, led by a supposedly divine Czar to an uncertain destination.
Just prior to the assassination of Tsar
Alexander II in 1881, Repin began work on a series of pictures specifically
concerning the Russian revolutionary movement: examples include: Arrest
of a Propagandist (1880-1892; The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow), The
Revolutionary Meeting (1883; Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow), as well as
his masterpieces They did not Expect Him, or Unexpected Return
(1884; Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow), which depicts the father of a household
returning from prison, and Refusal of the Confession (1879-1885;
The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow), which shows a dying man refusing a priest's
offer of the Last Rites.
Portraiture
During the 1880s, Repin also began painting
portraits and these works form an essential part of his artistic legacy.
He didn't just paint faces, rather he painted people fully, revealing
his models in their natural state, to show how they communicated. Examples
of Repin's best portraits include: Portrait of the Author Alexey Pisemsky
(1880), Portrait of the Composer Modest Musorgsky (1881), Portrait
of the Surgeon Nikolay Pirogov (1881), Portrait of the Poet Afanasy
Fet (1882), Portrait of the Art Critic Vladimir Stasov (1883),
and Portrait of Leo Tolstoy (1887), all typically distinguished
by Repin's economy and sharpness of execution. He also painted, the art
connoisseur and collector Pavel Tretyakov, and the Ukrainian poet and
painter, Taras Shevchenko.
History Painting
Repin was too taken up with genre works
and portraiture to pay much attention to history painting. Even so, he
succeeded in producing one of the great masterpieces of this particular
painting genre - Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan (1895; Tretyakov
Gallery, Moscow). Its intense expressionistic portrayal of the horrified
Ivan embracing his dying son, whom he has just struck and mortally wounded
in an uncontrolled fit of rage, leaves an unforgettable impression.
Another major work is The Reply of the
Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mahmoud IV (1880-1891; State Russian
Museum, St. Petersburg). Begun in the late 1870s, it was only finished
in 1891, and, somewhat ironically, was immediately bought by the Tsar,
who paid 35,000 rubles for the painting, a huge sum at the time.
In 1903, Repin was commissioned by the
Russian government to paint his most grandiose design, a monumental canvas
depicting a ceremonial session of the State Council of Imperial Russia.
Other than this, he painted a number of innovative religious works and
more portraits, but no new masterpieces. By the time of the Bolshevik
Revolution in 1917, he had retired to his estate located just to the north
of Saint Petersburg in Kuokkala, Grand Duchy of Finland, which immediately
declared its independence. Although he received numerous invitations to
return to his homeland, he excused himself by saying he was too old to
make the journey.
Not long after completing The Hopak,
a joyful picture on a Ukrainian Cossack theme, he died on his estate at
the age of 86. After his death a short-lived Repin cult emerged in the
Soviet Union during which he was praised as a model "progressive"
and "realist" to be copied by Socialist Realist painters in
the USSR.
Legacy
Repin produced a wide range of realistic
paintings frequently imbued with great psychological depth and great perception
of the tensions underlying the existing social order in Russia. He remains
one of the greatest genre-painters in the history of Ukrainian and Russian
art. Paintings by Repin hang in all the best
art museums of Russia, notably the Tretyakov
Gallery Moscow.
Works by Ilya Efimovich Repin
- Preparation for the Examination. 1864.
Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- Portrait of a Boy. 1867. Picture Gallery, Taganrog.
- Portrait of Tatyana Repina, the Artist's Mother. 1867. National Gallery,
Prague.
- Job and His Friends. 1869. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- Barge Haulers by Campfire. 1870. Museum of the Academy of Arts, St.
Petersburg.
- Barge Haulers on the Volga. 1870-1873. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- Raising of Jairus' Daughter. 1871. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- A Newspaper Seller in Paris. 1873. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Portrait of E. Mamontova. 1874-1879. State Art Museum Abramtsevo.
- A Fisher-Girl. 1874. Irkutsk Art Museum, Irkutsk.
- Sadko. 1876. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- Portrait of Vera Repina. 1876. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- On a Turf Bench. 1876. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- River Bank. 1876. K. Savitsky Picture Gallery, Penza.
- Ukranian Girl by a Fence. 1876. Art Museum of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus.
- Portrait of the Artist Vasily Polenov. 1877. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Portrait of the Artist Arkhip Kuinji. 1877. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- A Shy Peasant. 1877. The State Art Museum, Nizhniy Novgorod.
- A Peasant with an Evil Eye. 1877. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- An Archdeacon. 1877. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Self-Portrait. 1878. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- Girl with Flowers. Daughter of the Artist. 1878. Academy of Arts, St.
Petersburg.
- Portrait of the Artist Pavel Tchistyakov. 1878. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Tsarevna Sophia Alexeevna in Novodevitchy Convent. 1879. Tretyakov Gallery.
- Apples and Leaves. 1879. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- On a Bridge in Abramtsevo. 1879. Private collection.
- Portrait of Polixena Stasova. 1879. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- Portrait of Efim Repin, the Artist's Father. 1879. Russian Museum, St.
Petersburg.
- Refusal of the Confession. 1879-1885. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Portrait of Tschegolionkov. 1879. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- Portrait of Savva Mamontov. 1880. A. A. Bakhrushin Theatre Museum, Moscow.
- Portrait of the Author Alexey Pisemsky. 1880. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Portrait of the Artist Nikolay Gay. 1880. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mahmoud IV. 1891. Russian
Museum.
- Putting a Propagandist Under Arrest. 1880-1892. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Krestny Khod in Kursk Gubernia. 1880-1883. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Portrait of Nadya Repina. 1881. A. N. Radishchev Museum of Arts, Saratov.
- Portrait of the Composer Modest Musorgsky. 1881. Tretyakov Gallery.
- Portrait of the Composer Anton Rubinstein. 1881. Tretyakov Gallery.
- Portrait of the Surgeon Nikolay Pirogov. 1881. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- Portrait of the Artist Ivan Kramskoy. 1882. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Portrait of the Poet Afanasy Fet. 1882. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Portrait of the Military Engineer Andrey Delvig. 1882. Tretyakov Gallery.
- Portrait of the Actress Pelageya Strepetova. 1882. Tretyakov Gallery.
- Portrait of Vera Repina, Artist's Wife. 1882. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Portrait of T. A. Mamontova. 1882. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- The Revolutionary Meeting. 1883. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Student-Nihilist. 1883. Far East Fine Arts Museum, Khabarovsk.
- Annual Memorial Meeting of the Communards. 1883. Tretyakov Gallery,
Moscow.
- Portrait of Art Critic Vladimir Stasov. 1883. The Russian Museum, St.
Petersburg.
- Portrait of Pavel Tretyakov. 1883. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Portrait of Alexandra Molas. 1883. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- Portrait of Nadezhda Stasova. 1884. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburga.
- Unexpected Return. 1884. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Dragon-Fly. Portrait of Vera Repina. 1884. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Choosing a Bride for a Grand Duke. 1884. The Perm Picture Gallery.
- Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan 1581. 1885. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Portrait of Dmitry Mendeleev. 1885. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Portrait of the Artist Vasily Surikov. 1885. The Tretyakov Gallery,
Moscow.
- Portrait of the Artist Grigory Myasoedov. 1886. The Tretyakov Gallery,
Moscow.
- Self-Portrait. 1887. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Portrait of Alexander Glazunov. 1887. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- Portrait of Anton Rubinstein. 1887. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- Portrait of Leo Tolstoy. 1887. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Portrait of the Composer Mikhail Glinka. 1887. The Tretyakov Gallery,
Moscow.
- The Surgeon E. Pavlov in the Operating Theater. 1888. Tretyakov Gallery,
Moscow.
- Portrait of the Art Critic Vladimir Stasov. 1889. Tretyakov Gallery,
Moscow.
- Portrait of Sophia Dragomirova. 1889. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- Portrait of the Lawyer Vladimir Spasovitch. 1891. Russian Museum, St.
Petersburg.
- Leo Tolstoy in His Study. 1891. State Literature Museum, Moscow.
- Portrait of Sidor Shavrov. 1892. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- Autumn Bouquet. Portrait of Vera Repina. 1892. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Portrait of Nikolay Rymsky-Korsakov. 1893. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- Portrait of Alexander Verzhbilovich. 1895. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- Portrait of Countess Natalia Golovina. 1896. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- Portrait of Maxim Gorky. 1899. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- Portrait of Nadezhda Repina. 1900. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
- Portrait of V. K. Pleve. 1902. Art Museum of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus.
- What a Freedom! 1903. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council. 1903. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- Portrait of K. Pobedonostsev. Study. 1903. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
- Portrait of the Author Leonid Andreev. 1905. Museum of Fine Arts, Omsk.
- Portrait of Maria Andreeva. 1905. Art Museum of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus.
- Portrait of Ivan Zvetkov. 1907. The Art Museum, Ryazan.
- Portrait of the Author Vladimir Korolemko. 1912. Tretyakov Gallery,
Moscow.
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