The painter Ilya Efimovich Repin was one of the most talented artists of his era. Real masterpieces came out from under his brush, the value of which today reaches sky-high heights. Repin’s work has changed significantly over the years, and he smoothly moved from a domestic theme to a religious theme.
He was born in the Kharkov province, on the territory of modern Ukraine. As a child, Ilya Repin became interested in painting due to chance – his cousin once brought home watercolors that struck the future artist. At the age of 11, he began to study as a surveyor. During his studies, he drew and drew a lot, which also contributed to the formation of Repin as an artist. At the christening of Repin’s daughter, among other guests, Modest Mussorgsky, the famous composer and his friend, were present. Emperor Alexander III personally ordered the paintings to him. At the age of 16 he began to work in the icon-painting artel. He had to leave the house, as the artel wandered from city to city. Having set aside a certain amount of money, I. Repin left his job and moved to Petersburg to enter the Academy of Arts. However, his work did not impress the commission, and he was refused. But Repin did not lose hope, but began to study at an art school. On the second attempt, he still entered the Academy of Fine Arts. One of his most famous paintings is “Barge Haulers on the Volga”. The idea for this canvas was born in his head in his youth, when he saw the hacks at work. During the years of study at the Academy of Arts, Ilya Repin received a silver medal and two gold medals, small and large. One of the artist’s close friends was the famous writer Korney Chukovsky. The last thirty years of his life, I.E. Repin lived in Finland.
His first work on order was the painting “Slavic Composers”, a group portrait, for which he received 1,500 rubles. This amount, very large by the standards of those years, allowed him to get out of need. During his life, Repin was a member of the Imperial Academy of Arts. The artist continued to paint until his death in 1930. Repin’s second wife was an ardent vegetarian, and the painter was also inspired by her ideas. The guests in his house were also fed only vegetarian food, which caused a funny incident. Once the artist invited Ivan Bunin to paint his portrait, but he upon arrival found that, despite the winter, all the windows were wide open, and Repin himself was walking in a fur coat and felt boots. After the artist promised Bunin an early breakfast of vegetables and herbs, he escaped on a far-fetched pretext, and later sent Repin an apology telegram. Ilya Repin preferred to sleep in the fresh air, and not only in the summer, but also in the cold. He didn’t have a servant at home who would serve or take over clothes from his guests. Repin found himself in Finland when, in 1918, after the revolution and the revision of the borders, the land where his estate stood was moved to Finland. After Repin’s right hand began to be taken away, he learned to paint with his left. Once, impressed by Mayakovsky’s poems, he invited him to paint his portrait. In response, the poet, thanking, painted a caricature of Repin himself, who, incidentally, liked the painter.
