Repin Ilya Efimovich biography for children. Repin Ilya Efimovich – gallery of works (344 images)

Biography and episodes of life Ilya Repin. When born and died Ilya Repin, memorable places and dates of important events in his life. Artist quotes, images and videos.

Years of life of Ilya Repin:

born July 24, 1844, died September 29, 1930

Epitaph

“Repin, we love you,
How Russia loves the Volga!”
From a poem by Finnish writer Eino Leino

Biography

The greatest artist of Russia, who left behind a huge legacy of work, Ilya Repin was born in a small Ukrainian town. Amazing abilities The boy's talent for drawing was noticeable from childhood, and he was sent to study with a local painter. At the first stage of his work, Repin worked in rural churches and was engaged in icon painting. Then he went to St. Petersburg, where he became a mentor young artist became I. Kramskoy, and entered the Academy of Arts.

Despite the highest grades in his studies, Repin did not consider himself particularly talented. He was sure that mastery could only be achieved through hard work. Repin placed work above all else and painted for many hours every day. While working, Repin forgot about everything; he's up to last days I never parted with my brush throughout my life.

During his long and fruitful creative career, Repin created a huge number of portraits, including his greatest contemporaries - Mendeleev, Pirogov, Tolstoy, Andreev, Liszt, Mussorgsky, Glinka. But the artist never focused on one topic. He was even reproached for this: one after another, Repin could paint pictures based on epics, scenes from folk life, a portrait of a secular young lady and a story from the Gospel. But no one could argue with the fact that every character, every face in Repin’s paintings is a personality, bright and characteristic. This is especially noticeable in the works of the most significant period in Repin’s work, which began in the 1880s. and lasted ten years.

Repin did not strive to rich life and was distinguished by simple habits: he loved to sleep outdoors (sometimes even in winter - in a sleeping bag), travel, and was personally involved in archaeological excavations. During his famous Wednesday dinners, to which the artist’s friends, famous writers, painters, and actors came to the Penates, guests were served vegetarian food made from grass and hay. Repin's funds in his State Bank accounts were nationalized after the revolution, and the artist, left almost penniless in Kuokkala, did not hesitate to start a vegetable garden and a goat, which he looked after himself.

The death of his beloved from tuberculosis undermined the artist’s health, which was already not very strong due to his age. Ilya Repin died of cardiac arrest and was buried not far from Penaty, in a place that he chose. His funeral was attended by many people, including official representatives the Finnish government and the Finnish Academy of Arts.

During World War II, the Penates were wiped off the face of the earth. Soviet troops: in 1944, the headquarters of the Finnish command was located here. The house was destroyed, and Repin's grave was lost. Today, the artist’s final resting place has been determined conditionally. But the house was restored and filled with original exhibits that were taken to Leningrad before the war.

Life line

July 24, 1844 Date of birth of Ilya Efimovich Repin.
1857 Beginning of training at the school of topographers and painting with I. Bunakov. Creation of the earliest watercolors.
1859 Work as an icon painter in rural churches.
1863 Moving to St. Petersburg. Admission to the drawing school of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. Meeting I. Kramskoy.
1864 Admission to the Academy of Arts.
1865 Receiving the title of free artist.
1869 Receiving a small gold medal for the painting “Job and His Friends.”
1870 First trip to the Volga, working on sketches.
1872 Marriage to Vera Alekseevna Shvetsova. Birth of daughter Vera.
1873 Creation of the painting “Barge Haulers on the Volga” commissioned by Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich. Trip to Italy and France for training.
1873-1876 Life in France.
1874 Birth of the second daughter, Nadezhda.
1876 Return to Chuguev.
1877 Birth of son Yuri.
1880 Trip to Ukraine. Birth of daughter Tatyana.
1882 Moving from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
1883 Second trip to Europe.
1885 Completion of two years of work on the painting “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan November 16, 1581.”
1887 Divorce from first wife.
1891 Completion of more than ten years of work on the painting “Response of the Cossacks.”
1892 Personal exhibition in Historical Museum in Moscow. Buying an estate in Zdravnevo.
1893 Repin becomes a full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts.
1894-1907 Teaching work.
1898 Appointment as rector of the Academy of Arts. Pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
1899 Unofficial marriage to Natalya Nordman, acquisition of a plot of land in Kuokkala (future “Penates”).
1908 Publication of the first chapters of Repin’s memoirs “Distant Close”.
1911 Personal exhibition in a separate pavilion at the World Exhibition in Rome.
September 29, 1930 Date of death of Ilya Repin.
October 5, 1930 Repin's funeral service in the Kuokkalovskaya Orthodox Church and funeral not far from it, in Penates.

Memorable places

1. Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg (University Embankment, 17), where Repin studied (now the Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture).
2. Saratov, in the vicinity of which Repin worked on the Volga in 1870.
3. House No. 8 on the street. R. Luxemburg (formerly Nikitinskaya Street) in Chuguev, where Repin lived with his parents and where his son was born. Nowadays - Artistically memorial museum I. Repin.
4. House No. 15 on the street. Timur Frunze (formerly Teply Lane) in Moscow, where Repin lived since 1877.
5. House No. 135 on the embankment. Griboyedov Canal (formerly the Catherine Canal) in St. Petersburg ( apartment building K. Grigoriev), where Repin lived in apartment No. 1 from 1882 to 1887 and kept a workshop from 1887 to 1895. Nowadays it is a historical monument of federal significance.
6. House No. 1 on the 4th line of the Military District in St. Petersburg, where Repin lived in apartment No. 12 from 1895 to 1903.
7. Repin’s museum-estate “Zdravnevo” near Vitebsk.
8. Ilya Repin’s grave next to his house in “Penates” (now the village of Repino, Primorskoye Highway, 411), where the artist lived from 1903 until his death.

Episodes of life

On own wedding Repin came to the church straight from the studio, putting a pencil in his pocket. At the end of the ceremony, he immediately returned to work.

Emperor Alexander III categorically did not like Repin’s famous painting “Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan”, and in 1885 it was banned from showing. Thus, it became the first picture in Russia to be censored. And in 1913, the faces in the painting were slashed with a knife, after which the artist had to redraw them again.

Repin was considered a wonderful teacher. IN different times he taught B. Kustodiev, A. Ostroumova-Lebedev, V. Serov.

After the revolution, Kuokkala (now Repino), where Repin’s “Penates” were located, ended up on the territory of Finland, but the artist refused to move to Russia. He loved Finland and called Helsinki “a piece of Paris.”

In the 1930s, immediately after the artist’s death, he became a real cult figure in Russia. His work was considered a model socialist realism. Repin became one of the few emigrants who was not vilified by the Soviet authorities.

Testaments

“Tastes for the arts are individual to such an extent that they probably cannot be brought under any laws, and they have not been discussed for a long time.”

“Most people need a material life, tangible joys, elegant arts, feasible virtues, cheerful fun. And the great, merciful Creator sends them fun, amusing people, science, and art.”

“I love art more than virtue... I love it secretly, jealously, like an old drunkard - incurably. Wherever I am, no matter what I have fun with, no matter how much I admire, no matter what I enjoy, it is always and everywhere in my head, in my heart, in my desires - the best, the deepest."

“A true artist needs colossal development if he recognizes his duty to be worthy of his calling.”

“Even in our youth, we learned that three great ideas are embedded in the human soul: truth, goodness and beauty. I think these ideas are equal in their power and influence on people.”

Paintings by Ilya Repin

Condolences

“A great Russian man has died, but now it is difficult to comprehend this loss in its entirety... Repin’s paintings will speak brightly and with amazing eloquence about the same aspirations, about the same impulses, and his portraits will be our true gallery of ancestors, in which every ancestor will be If he is not always dear and respectful to us, he is still close and understandable.”
Alexandre Benois, artist, art historian

“There is no artist in Russian art who is as popular as Repin. Everyone knows this and everyone can check it. Whoever your interlocutor is... ask him right away, by surprise: “Who is the most famous Russian artist?”, the answer will be the same: Repin! His name comes first. Our memory and thought suggest it, first of all. ... He is the embodiment of the national glory of Russian painting. He is the most authorized of its representatives. In the popular consciousness, this is a Russian Artist, with two capital letters.”
Abram Efros, Russian and Soviet art critic

“Repin would not have been a Russian genius if, even in depicting the most pathetic feelings, he had not remained extremely simple, unpompous, alien to any pose or phrase.”

“...if we remember his phenomenal, always amazing modesty, his passion for work, his Spartan severity towards himself, towards his talent, his love for art, the democracy of his life, his thoughts and feelings, it will become clear that this was not only genius artist, but also a man of genius, not only a master of wonderful painting, but also a master of a wonderful life.”
Korney Chukovsky, writer and friend of Repin

The name of the great artist Ilya Repin is familiar to almost everyone. Many museums, streets and galleries are named in his honor. It deserves special attention. It most clearly and vividly describes the most important events in the life of the great master.

Childhood and youth

Repin Ilya Efimovich was born on August 5, 1844 on the territory of modern Ukraine. The future artist was born in the small town of Chuguev in the Kharkov region. Ilya Repin's father was a military settler.

The boy began to get involved in art early. Already at the age of thirteen he took up painting. Repin's mentor was the icon painter and portrait painter Ivan Mikhailovich Bunakov, who also lived in Chuguev. As the artist himself later admitted, the teacher had a tremendous influence on the formation of his style. Repin repeatedly called Bunakov the best of the Chuguev masters. Ilya Efimovich is even credited with the following words: “Ivan Mikhailovich was truly incredible artist and occupied a place on the same level as Holbein.”

From the very beginning of his creative activity, Repin received good reviews about creativity. His paintings are very popular in his home district. Wanting to develop further, the young painter makes an important decision in life to try his luck in St. Petersburg. It is in this glorious city on the Neva that Repin’s short biography continues.

Study and recognition

In 1863, luck smiled on the talented artist, and Ilya Efimovich entered the Academy of Arts. There the master shows remarkable creativity, which earns the respect of colleagues and mentors. Among Repin's famous teachers was Rudolf Kazimirovich Zhukovsky.

Just six years later, the young artist received his first award, which is what Repin’s short biography is about. It was Malaya for the painting “Job and His Friends” he painted.

Searches in creativity

Since 1870, Repin has been traveling by steamship down the Volga River. The artist uses the time allotted for this journey to his advantage for creativity. During the trip, the master’s piggy bank is replenished with numerous sketches and sketches. Later, some of them formed the basis of one of the most important paintings in the master’s work - “Barge Haulers on the Volga”. This canvas took three whole years to paint and had great importance for the then cultural and political life. It is worth noting that its creation was carried out to order from Prince V. Alexandrovich himself. However, this picture aroused genuine emotions not only for him. Critics responded well to the work done. After all, the picture simply amazes with its genuine sincerity, careful technical elaboration the smallest details and labor-intensive drawing of all the characters.

Soon Repin will receive the next important award for him. In 1870, the artist was awarded the Great Gold Medal. This time the critics' choice fell on a large canvas called "The Resurrection of Jairus' Daughter." This work became significant for the master, because, in addition to recognition in his homeland, he got the opportunity to try his hand at studying and creativity in the vastness of Europe. Sunny Italy and France were already waiting for him, where Repin went. The artist continues to improve his skills.

Cultural heritage

One of the most striking works in Repin’s work was the painting “The Cossacks Write a Letter to the Turkish Sultan" The master made his first sketches in 1878. Ilya Efimovich worked on the canvas for ten long years.

It is worth noting that, in addition to creative activities, Repin was also successfully engaged in teaching. So, since 1893 he took an honorable place at the Academy of Arts. Later the master ran the workshop. The pinnacle of his teaching career was the position of rector of the Academy.

Interestingly, the artist was married twice. With his second legal wife, the master lived in his own estate in Finland until the end of his life.

This is where the short biography of Repin ends, but everyone can find something new for themselves in his work.

And Lya Repin became interested in drawing in early childhood; he studied to be a topographer and was an apprentice to icon painters. Repin entered the Academy of Arts only the second time, but then returned there to teach. And famous St. Petersburg aristocrats and even Emperor Alexander III ordered his paintings.

Topographer, icon painter, student at the Academy of Arts

Ilya Repin was born in 1844 in Chuguev, near Kharkov. His father, Efim Repin, together with his eldest son, drove herds of horses for sale. Mother, Tatyana Bocharova, raised her own children and organized a small school where peasants and their children learned penmanship, arithmetic and the Law of God.

Paint future artist started early. His cousin Trofim Chaplygin brought paints to the Repins’ house, and since then the boy has not parted with watercolors.

“I had never seen paints before and I was looking forward to Trofim painting with paints. The first picture - a watermelon - suddenly turned into a living one before our eyes. But there was a miracle when Trofim painted the cut half of the second watermelon with red paint so vividly and juicily that we even wanted to eat the watermelon; and when the red paint had dried, with a thin brush he made black seeds here and there across the red pulp - a miracle! miracle!"

Ilya Repin

When Ilya Repin was 11 years old, he was sent to topography school - this specialty was in demand in Chuguev. But the boy studied there for only two years, then the school was closed. He got a job as an apprentice in an icon-painting workshop with a representative of the artistic dynasty, master Ivan Bunakov. Repin recalled about him: “My teacher, Ivan Mikhailovich Bunakov, was an excellent portrait painter, he was a very talented painter”.

The talent of the young student was quickly noticed: at the age of 16, Repin had already left to work with a nomadic artel of icon painters. A few years later, the young artist decided to go to St. Petersburg to study painting. He collected all the money he earned and left to enter the Academy of Arts.

First entrance examinations Repin failed to enter the Academy of Arts. However, he did not return to his hometown. The aspiring artist became a student at a preparatory evening school, and later came back for tests at the Academy. And he did. During his eight years of study, he met many representatives of the creative elite Northern capital: Repin had close contact with the artists Ivan Kramskoy, whom he called his teacher in his memoirs, and Vasily Polenov, as well as the critic Vasily Stasov.

Genre and historical paintings by Ilya Repin

However, the young painter lived in poverty. He earned money by selling his paintings. One of genre paintings- on it Repin depicted a student watching a girl through the window - bought for quite a bit a large sum. The artist recalled: “I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such happiness in my entire life!” Except genre paintings Repin also created portraits. In 1869 he wrote to Vera Shevtsova, who three years later became his wife.

Ilya Repin. Resurrection of Jairus' daughter. 1871. State Russian Museum

Ilya Repin. Slavic composers. 1872. Moscow State Conservatory

Ilya Repin. Barge haulers on the Volga. 1872-1873. State Russian Museum

For my thesis- a painting based on the biblical motif “The Resurrection of Jairus’s Daughter” - Repin received a Big Gold Medal and the opportunity to travel to Europe to study Western European art.

By the time Repin graduated from the Academy, he was already a fairly famous artist and received his first large order. Alexander Porokhovshchikov, the owner of the Slavic Bazaar hotel, invited him to write “A Collection of Russian, Polish and Czech Composers” to decorate the restaurant. The amount of the fee - 1,500 rubles - seemed huge to Repin at that time. Vasily Stasov helped the artist in his work: he collected the materials needed for the work archival materials. The public liked the picture. But Ivan Turgenev was dissatisfied with her. In a letter to Stasov, he sarcastically called the painting “a vinaigrette of the living and the dead.” In 1873, Ilya Repin completed the canvas “Barge Haulers on the Volga,” which he worked on for several years.

Soon the artist went on a retirement trip from the Academy. In a letter to Stasov, he complained: “There are a lot of galleries, but... I don’t have the patience to get to the good stuff”.

Returning to Russia, Repin collected his “large stock of artistic goodness", moved from Chuguev to Moscow and joined the Association of Itinerants. In Moscow, Repin met Leo Tolstoy, completed the painting " Procession of the Cross in the Kursk province,” painted (on the second attempt) a portrait of Turgenev and prepared an unknown young man named Valentin Serov for admission to the Academy of Arts. However, the artist soon got tired of Moscow, and he decided to move to St. Petersburg again.

During this time, the artist painted several works that became classics of Russian art. Once he attended a concert by Rimsky-Korsakov and was inspired by the desire “to depict in painting something similar in power to his music.” In 1885, at the exhibition of the Wanderers, the artist presented the textbook painting “Ivan the Terrible Kills His Son.” During the same period, he painted the canvas “They Didn’t Expect”, portraits of Leo Tolstoy and Pavel Tretyakov.

Ilya Repin. They didn't wait. 1884-1887. State Tretyakov Gallery

Ilya Repin. The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan. 1880-1891. State Russian Museum

Ilya Repin. Ivan the Terrible kills his son. 1885. State Tretyakov Gallery

In 1892, the Academy of Arts hosted an exhibition of Ilya Repin and Ivan Shishkin. Her guests saw the painting “Cossacks writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan” - Repin worked on it for 11 years. The painting was purchased by Emperor Alexander III - the price of 35 thousand rubles turned out to be high even for Pavel Tretyakov.

In 1894, Repin returned to the Academy of Arts - this time as a teacher. He taught there for 13 years - until 1907.

Kuokkalla - native "Penates"

While Ilya Repin worked at the Academy of Arts, he managed to visit Italy again, fulfill several large-scale orders from the emperor (including the “Anniversary Meeting of the State Council”) and marry the writer Natalya Nordman for the second time. The romance developed rapidly: they met at the beginning of 1900, and that same fall Repin moved to Nordman’s estate near St. Petersburg in the village of Kuokkala. Korney Chukovsky recalled the order in the Repins’ house: the artist’s wife was a vegetarian, opposed wearing fur, and wore a thin coat in any frost. Repin himself became a vegetarian. Signs were hung around their house: “Don’t wait for servants - there aren’t any”, "Servants are a disgrace to humanity". However, despite these extravagant rules, poets, writers and artists visited the house of Repin and Nordman. Repin met them on Wednesdays. The table was prepared for the guests, and the spouses looked after them themselves.

Ilya Repin was born August 5, 1844 in Chuguev in the Kharkov region in the family of a retired soldier. “I was born a military villager. This title is very despicable - only serfs were considered lower than the villagers,” wrote later artist. Like many children of military villagers, Repin entered a military school, the topography department. It was there that his passion for drawing first manifested itself. However, the boy was unlucky because the department was soon closed. Then, at the urgent request of the boy, his father apprenticed him to the icon painter Bunakov.

Ilya Repin. Self-portrait. 1878.

For almost four years, Ilya worked in an artel of artists, where he was engaged in painting icons and restoring ancient iconostases, but he dreamed of more. Having saved 100 rubles from church orders, in 1863 the young artist headed to St. Petersburg, but he was unable to enter the Academy of Arts because he did not know the basics of classical drawing. Then Repin decided to enter a private drawing school, where Kramskoy taught. Soon he noticed the talented young man, invited him to visit him, and from then on their friendship began, which played a huge role in Repin’s life.

On Kramskoy’s recommendation, two months later Repin was admitted as a volunteer to the academy. At the end of his first year, he received the highest grade for the painting “The Lamentation of Jeremiah on the Ruins of Jerusalem” and became a student at the academy. In parallel with his studies, Ilya attended evenings at Kramskoy’s house, where members of the artel of the Wanderers gathered. Communication with them determined his creative credo.

In 1871, Repin completed his studies at the academy by participating in the competition for the Great Gold Medal. He painted a painting based on the gospel story “The Resurrection of Jairus’s Daughter.” The picture was highly praised by the academy and Repin was awarded a Big Gold Medal, which entitled him to a six-year trip abroad at the expense of the academy. In 1873, Repin completed work on the painting “Barge Haulers on the Volga.” The artist spoke about how the idea for “Burlakov” was born in his memoirs. This was in 1868. Ilya Repin, a student at the Academy of Arts, worked on a competition painting for biblical story"Job and his friends."

On one fine summer day, the artist K. Savitsky persuaded Repin to go with him to sketches. They sailed up the Neva on a steamboat in the company of merry officers, students and smart young ladies: “However, what is it that is moving here,” I ask Savitsky... “That dark, greasy, brown spot that is creeping onto our Sun?

A! These are the tow barge haulers pulling the barge; Bravo, what types! You'll see, they'll come closer now, it's worth taking a look.

We got closer. Oh God, why are they so dirty and ragged? One of them has a torn trouser leg dragging on the ground, and his bare knee is sparkling, others have their elbows hanging out, some are without hats; shirts, shirts! Decayed - you can’t recognize the pink chintz hanging on them in stripes, and you can’t even make out either the color or the material from which they are made. These are rags! The strapped breasts are rubbed red, bare and brown from the sun... The faces are gloomy, sometimes only a heavy glance flashes from under a strand of loose hanging hair, the faces are sweaty and shiny, and the shirts are completely dark... What a contrast with this clean fragrant flower garden of the gentlemen!..

This is an incredible picture! - I shout to Savitsky. - Nobody will believe it! People are harnessed instead of cattle! Savitsky, is it really not possible to transport barges with luggage in a more decent way, for example, by tugboats?

Yes, such voices have already been heard, - Savitsky was smart and practically knew life. - But tugboats are expensive; and most importantly, these same pack barges will load the barge, and they will also unload it at the place where the luggage is being transported. Go there and look for the hook workers! What would it be worth?

I was amazed by the whole picture, and almost didn’t listen to him, I kept thinking. What seemed most interesting to me was the moment when a black, sweaty paw rose above the young ladies, and I decided to definitely write a sketch of this scene.”

Both the sketch and the painting were painted. The picture shocked everyone - both the artist’s friends and enemies. But for this, Repin needed several years of hard work, two trips to the Volga, daily communication and friendship with the heroes of the future picture, work on sketches, and long hours in the studio. The first impression of the scene seen on the Neva did not fade, but the concept of the picture changed over time. The straightforward, frontal contrast of barge haulers and elegant young ladies has disappeared; the scene was transferred to the Volga, under a summer sky covered with light clouds, to a sandbank, hot from the scorching sun. In the background on the right was a heavily loaded barge with a figurine of the owner or clerk on board, and across the entire picture, from right to left, walked a gang of barge haulers, straining, with the last of their strength, pulling the ship. The yellow amber of the sand, the deep blue of the water, the expanse of the sky - and a gang of barge haulers in gray, dirty, torn rags, thoroughly soaked with salty sweat, in rotten onuchas or collapsed bast shoes. Sky, water, sand - and eleven people, whose labor is valued less than that of a horse and, of course, steam traction (in the distance, on the horizon, the smoke of a steamship was visible).

Ilya Repin. Barge haulers on the Volga. 1870-1873.
State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Here is what Stasov wrote: “Just look at Mr. Repin’s “Burlakov”, and you will immediately be forced to admit that no one has ever dared to take such a plot from us and that you have never seen such a deeply stunning picture from Russian folk life, for nothing , that this plot and this task have been facing us and our artists for a long time. But isn’t this the most fundamental property of a powerful talent - to see and put into one’s creation that which is truthful and simple and which hundreds and thousands of people pass by without noticing?” "Barge Haulers" was shown on world exhibition in Vienna and brought the artist European fame. One of the great princes purchased it for his collection.

In May 1873, Repin went abroad as a pensioner of the Academy of Arts. He went with his wife and small child, his first daughter Vera. Repin married in February 1872, and Vera Alekseevna Shevtsova became his chosen one.

Ilya Repin. Portrait of V.A. Repina, the artist’s wife. 1876. State Russian Museum,
St. Petersburg, Russia.

Young Repin was studying at the Academy of Arts when he met and became friends with the son of the famous architect Alexei Shevtsov. The friends spent a lot of time together; the situation in their parents’ house was very conducive to this. Among the wide circle of guests who filled the hospitable house, aspiring artists found models for their canvases. A friend’s sister, Vera Shevtsova, responded willingly to Ilya’s requests to pose and followed his commands with enviable patience in the process of implementing a creative idea. There is a well-known portrait, painted in 1869, in which 14-year-old Verochka, the owner of large, expressive dark eyes on a dark face, sat in a free pose in a chair. Communication between the artist and the daughter of the owners of the hospitable house took place not only during working moments of implementing Ilya Repin’s creative ideas. They were brought together by the sounds of the waltz, they sat side by side while playing forfeits. Vera knew how to be a grateful listener; she was thoughtful about the artist’s thoughts about art, about his favorite activity - painting. And she herself was a creative person, she knew how to sculpt a simple figure and draw some kind of animal. The teenage girl seemed to Repin to be a very close person, kindred to his soul. Gradually, Ilya got used to her company and became sad when they didn’t see each other for a long time. At such moments he sent her letters. Vera did not like to write letters, thanks to this quality that remained throughout her life, she kept her lover in constant tension. The young couple walked down the aisle on February 11, 1872, and the girl’s studies were interrupted with the marriage. Late in the fall, she gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Vera in her honor. Two years later, also in the fall, Nadya was born in Paris, and later Yuri and Tatyana appeared in the young family. The artist sketched the household members of his gradually growing family. Paintings of a young mother tired in the evening appeared, sitting down for a moment to rest in an armchair, a portrait of the black-haired “Parisian” Nadenka, scattered in her sleep on a snow-white pillow. The paintings emanated a spirit of calm and peace, home comfort, family happiness. Alas, in life this family did not know him. The painter’s biographer Sofya Prorokova wrote: “No one will say for sure when discord settled in the house, but both were equally to blame for it. Repin was a hot-tempered and quick-tempered man, passionate about everything: art, people, nature, books. He was never an exemplary husband and his frequent hobbies caused his wife a lot of grief.”

Ilya Repin. Summer landscape
(Vera Alekseevna Repina on the bridge in Abramtsevo).
1879. State Museum fine arts them. A.S. Pushkin - Department of personal collections.

When moving to St. Petersburg, the Repin family lived in an “open” house, just like Vera Alekseevna’s girlhood. Repin became a gifted artist, successfully moving towards the peak of fame, open to communication, and a charming person. More and more new acquaintances were involuntarily drawn to him - writers, scientists, artists, and ladies also appeared who presented the good-natured owner of the house with signs of attention and considered it a pleasure to pose for celebrities. The artist’s quiet wife, burdened with household chores, did not fit into the atmosphere of such a crowded salon, seething with guests. She was responsible for raising four children, caring for their health and hobbies, she constantly kept in the shadow of her sociable husband, in a word, Vera Alekseevna was not suitable for the role of a worthy hostess of a high-society salon. At the same time, Repin reached out to new acquaintances, to beautiful women who shone with intelligence and education. His wife couldn’t keep up with him, and by nature she didn’t strive to be a socialite. Scandalous situations and disagreements became frequent in the artist’s family. After Ilya Efimovich’s next hobby, his wife demanded a break in the relationship. The eldest daughters remained with their father, and Yuri and Tatyana with their mother. Vera Veryovkina, one of the artist’s students, with whom he was seriously in love, shared her memories of that difficult time for the couple with her descendants: “I was deeply sorry for his wife - faded, like plants and women left in the shadows. But my old attachment to the culprit of this shadow prevailed…” wrote a witness to the difficult relationship between the Repins. However, his own frequent hobbies for the fair sex did not prevent the artist from being jealous of his wife. One day he could not restrain himself and kicked out of the house the son of the famous artist Perov, who had an accident. short novel with Vera Alekseevna. True, after this incident, many acquaintances changed their attitude towards the artist’s wife, and for the worse. Valentin Serov even allowed himself to sharply characterize his attitude towards her: “I have neither sympathy nor respect for her.” Probably, such opinions were formed thanks to Ilya Efimovich’s frank stories about difficult family relationships - between spouses, between parents and children. Troubled life in home turned the artist into an irritable, hot-tempered person with an uneven, unyielding character. The Repins then diverged, then united again, the final break occurred after the artist moved to Kuokkala near St. Petersburg, and in 1919 Vera Alekseevna died.

The artist spent about three years from 1873 to 1876 in Paris. He was not enthusiastic about modern art. He wrote to Stasov: “We have nothing to learn here... they have a different principle, a different task, a different worldview.” He painted sketches of the Parisian suburbs, street scenes, portraits in particular of Turgenev, conceived and painted big picture"Parisian cafe" In 1876, Repin painted a half-length portrait of his wife, wearing a gray dress and a black hat with an ostrich feather. Vera Alekseevna's appearance was full of grace. Her wardrobe had a Parisian taste. That same year Repin returned to Russia. Here, already on Russian soil, he painted a wonderful painting “On a Turf Bench,” which was a group portrait in a landscape. The artist Grabar responded to this work in the following way: “Brilliant in skill, fresh and juicy, it belonged to the best landscape motifs ever written by Repin.”

Ilya Repin. Beggar (Fisherman Girl). Woel. 1874.
Irkutsk Regional Art Museum named after. V.P.Sukacheva

In search of new stories, Repin and his family headed to Chuguev, to their native place. Among the works of this period, the sketch “A Timid Peasant” and the portrait “Protodeacon”, painted in 1877, stand out. “The Timid Little Peasant” and “Protodeacon” were exhibited by Repin at the Sixth Traveling Exhibition in 1878. Repin spent the summer of 1878 in Abramtsevo with the Mamontovs. He had been here more than once with his family, worked a lot, painted portraits, in particular, of Mamontov himself and his wife, landscapes and still lifes.

With the move to Moscow, Ilya Efimovich developed an interest in Russian antiquity. As a result, the painting “Warrior of the 17th Century” appeared, and soon the more significant painting “Princess Sofya Alekseevna in the Novodevichy Convent”.

Back in 1876, in Chuguev, the artist conceived the painting “Religious procession in the Kursk province.” But he began his plan in 1980. TO similar topic, which made it possible to develop a gallery of types of the Russian village, was used by artists more than once, but Repin raised it to the level of historical scale. Fully preserving the sensually tangible concreteness and individuality of each character inherent in his talent, he seemed to recreate the image of all of Russia: a lady inflated with noble arrogance with miraculous icon, policemen on horseback - guards of order, wealthy merchants, prosperous portly clergymen, bourgeois women touchingly carrying a case from an icon, sedate bearded fists, sotskie crowding with sticks a crowd of the poor, crippled, wretched... Each of them is a personality, a bright relief character, and all together formed the main character of the picture - a polyphonic and multifaceted image of the Russian village of that time, of the entire Russian society.

During the same period, Ilya Repin painted his first painting on revolutionary theme- “Under gendarme escort.” Further, the artist more than once turned to the image of a revolutionary. This cycle included the paintings “Refusal of Confession”, “Gathering” and “We Didn’t Expect”. In 1880, Repin was completely absorbed in working on “Cossacks”. But soon in his letters to friends there appeared references to “long-conceived pictures from the most pressing reality surrounding us, understandable to us and exciting us more than all past events.” These were the paintings already begun by the artist: “Religious Procession in the Kursk Province,” “Arrest of the Propagandist,” “They Didn’t Expect” and “Refusal of Confession before the Death Penalty.”

Ilya Repin. They didn't wait. 1884-1888.

In the painting, which was very small in size and very restrained in color, everything was simple and everything was complex. Two figures, one of which stands with his back to the viewer, very sparse furnishings; in fact, there is almost none - a prison cell, a damp, dark iron bed, sinking in the pre-dawn twilight. Earthy gray and olive, greenish tones recreated the atmosphere of the scene, adding drama and emotional excitement to the depicted scene. A cold, meager light penetrating from somewhere above illuminated the figure of a prisoner sitting on a bed in a gray prison robe, his pale face, his tangled hair thrown back, his emaciated chest. In front of him is a prison priest with a cross in his hands. An elderly man, with a round, stooped back, overweight, already accustomed to his terrible duty - to accompany those sentenced to death to death: the last confession, repentance, reconciliation with God... No tragic gestures of despair and anger, no tense contrasts of color, only the deathly expression is read on the face of the prisoner the melancholy of a person for whom this is the last morning, pride and dignity, unbroken will and confidence in the truth of the chosen path. By his posture, the gesture of his crossed arms, and his facial expression, he rejected the last confession. The artist did not invent his hero. In those years, high-profile trials of landowners, Narodnaya Volya, terrorists took place, and every now and then there were reports of new attempts on the life of the tsar, governors, gendarmerie generals, trials and cruel sentences, escapes from hard labor, suicides, capital punishments, refusals of convicts to make their final confession and participles.

The artist was not a revolutionary in life; he was united with the populists by hatred of despotism, autocracy, and the official church, but he did not share the program and methods of their struggle. He did not belong to any one party; his significance as a major Russian artist was different. The struggle of the revolutionaries against tsarism was an expression of the best qualities of the Russian people and their national character, and therefore Repin could not ignore it, so he painted his paintings, which became his creative and civic feat.

Ilya Repin. Portrait of the composer M.P. Mussorgsky. 1881. Oil on canvas. 71.8 x 58.5. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.

It’s impossible not to write about portrait art Ilya Repin. One of the most iconic in his work was the portrait of Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky. “What a blessing that this portrait now exists in the world. After all, Mussorgsky is one of the largest Russian musicians. His creations will occupy a great page in the history of Russian music. Of course, several good photographic portraits were taken of Mussorgsky in previous years, but what is photography in comparison with such a creation as a portrait made by hand? high artist. And Repin is not only a great painter, he was connected with Mussorgsky by friendship for many years and with all his fiery soul he loved and understood Mussorgsky’s musical creations,” Stasov wrote about this portrait.

Ilya Repin had a chance to see Mussorgsky in last time at the beginning of the post. He himself came here from Moscow for a traveling exhibition; he found Mussorgsky already in the Nikolaev military hospital. By all indications, Repin had to hurry with the portrait of his loved one on his current visit; it was clear that they would never see each other again. And then happiness favored the portrait: at the beginning of Lent, a period of illness began for Mussorgsky when he became refreshed, cheerful, cheerful, believed in a speedy healing and dreamed of new musical works. It was at this time that Repin met Mussorgsky. On top of everything, the weather was wonderful, and the large room with high windows where Mussorgsky was located was completely flooded. sunlight. Repin painted the portrait for only four days: March 2, 3, 4 and 5; After that, the last, fatal period of the great composer’s illness began. This portrait was painted with all sorts of inconveniences: the painter did not even have an easel, and he somehow perched himself at the table in front of which Mussorgsky was sitting in a hospital chair. He presented him in a robe with crimson velvet lapels and cuffs, with his head slightly bowed, deeply thinking about something. The similarity in facial features and expression was striking. Of all those who knew Mussorgsky, there was no one who would not be delighted with this portrait - it was so lifelike, so similar, so faithfully and simply conveyed the whole nature, the whole character, the whole appearance of Mussorgsky.

Even if Repin had left behind only portraits, even then he would have been given one of the leading places in Russian painting. And the point is not only in their number and not even in the fact that in their totality they formed a brilliant, unprecedented gallery of the largest figures of Russia and Russian culture, science, and social thought.

Ilya Repin. Portrait of the writer I.S. Turgenev. 1874.
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.

Genre realistic picturesque portrait, who organically combines figurative generalization and typification with individually specific characteristics, found a most talented master in the person of Repin. It seemed that he had spent his entire life in a state of passionate love for a person and, driven by it, he sought and found in each model a unique individual originality, an endless wealth of psychology, character, and inner world. Therefore, not a single portrait of him repeated another, and the system of expressive means - from composition to energy and direction of strokes - revealed amazing flexibility and plasticity in relation to the person being portrayed. Moreover, we can say that all of Repin’s work, in a certain sense, was based on the art of portraiture and all of his paintings from the present and past of Russia are group portraits.

In 1885, Repin completed one of the most famous paintings, “Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan.”

No less famous is the painting “Cossacks composing a letter to the Turkish Sultan,” which took 12 years to complete.

In the late 1870s, Repin worked a lot on portraits and paintings “Seeing Off a Recruit” and “Religious Procession in an Oak Forest.” In the evenings, hosts and guests gathered together, sang, played, read stories, poems or scientific articles aloud, and argued about art and politics. On one of these summer evenings, Conservatory professor A. Rubets read the correspondence of the Turkish Sultan with the Zaporozhye Cossacks: “Saltan, son of Saltan of Tours, Caesar of Tours and Greek, Macedonian, Babylonian, Jerusalem, Pasha of Assyria, Great and Lesser Egypt, king of Alexandria, army and all in the world of those who live, the prince above princes, the grandson of God, the brave warrior, the accuser of Christ, the guardian of the crucified God, the great ruler, the hope and consolation of the infidel, and for Christians sorrow and fall. I command you to voluntarily submit to us along with all people.”

Ilya Repin. Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan November 16, 1581. 1885.
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.

The Cossacks’ answer was as follows: “Saltan, the son of the damned Saltan of Tours, comrade Satan, the abysses of hell Saltan of Tours, the foot of the Greek, the cook of the Babylonian, the armorer of Jerusalem, the charioteer of the Assyrian, the distiller of Great and Lesser Egypt, the swineherd of Alexandria, the archak of the army, the dog of the Tatar, living on in the light of the damned asp, the kidnapper of Kamenets Podolsky and all earthly inhabitants of the given spy and stingy, the whole world is brought, the Tursky district busurman, equal to miser, the slander of Satan, the grandson of the whole host of hell, the damned messenger of Satan, the enemy of the crucified god and the persecutor of his slaves, hope and consolation Basurmansky, their fall and sorrow. We will not give in to you, but we will fight with you.”

Repin knew this letter from the Cossacks since childhood; lists of it were widely distributed in Ukraine. But now it has stirred up the most precious memories of our native land. A scene arose in the artist’s imagination - the Cossacks were writing a response to the Turkish Sultan. From under Repin’s pencil a group of laughing Cossacks emerged: a clerk with a bowl haircut was grinning slyly, behind him was Ataman Serko, next to him was a Cossack with an outstretched hand, and a little further away was “Taras Bulba,” thundering with all his heroic strength. The artist grouped his characters on an almost square, relatively small canvas. Basically, the composition and the main characters - Serko, the clerk, "Taras Bulba", a Cossack with an outstretched hand, a Cossack sitting on the left in a shirt and some others - remain the same as in the pencil sketch. But Repin brought the entire scene very close to the viewer, as if directly introducing him into the close circle of Cossacks. By cutting off the composition from below, the artist thereby focused all the viewer’s attention on the very characteristic faces of his heroes. In the background is a strip of the Dnieper playing in the sun, and right in front of the viewer is a group of tanned, weather-beaten Cossacks. In the complex juxtaposition of red, golden and green clothes, white shirts, velvet and sheepskin hats, dark bronze and purple faces with black and gray mustaches, the artist managed to find the only correct solution. After all, only in this cheerful, major sound of color could the idea and theme of the painting be expressed. After several expeditions to Ukraine in Moscow, Repin began working on a large canvas. He was unable to find the right solution right away, but Repin could no longer leave his Cossacks. The artist described his condition in the following way in a letter to V.V. Stasov: “Until now I could not answer you, Vladimir Vasilyevich, and it’s all the fault of the “Cossacks”, well, what a people!! Where can I write here, my head is spinning from their din and noise... You still decided to encourage me; long before your letter, I completely accidentally turned away the canvas and couldn’t resist, took up the palette and now I’ve been living with them for two and a half weeks without rest, I can’t part with them - they’re cheerful people. No wonder Gogol wrote about them, it’s all true! Damn people!.. No one in the whole world has felt freedom, equality and brotherhood so deeply!! Throughout his life, Zaporozhye remained free and did not submit to anything.”

Compared to the first sketch, Repin made some changes to the larger picture. He lengthened the format of the painting, organized the composition more clearly and variedly, and thereby created the impression of a crowded gathering. The psychological characteristics of the Cossacks became richer and more multifaceted; their images emerged more definitely and plastically. The theme and plot of the picture, its main characters remained the same as in the sketch. But the artist rearranged many figures, removed some completely, and introduced many new characters. “Cossacks” became more than just another picture for Repin. They were for him an outlet into which he penetrated fresh wind“freedom, equality and brotherhood”, the spirit of the free, unconquered Zaporozhye Sich, so strikingly different from contemporary Russia. In several weeks of hard work, Repin significantly advanced the picture. However, new interests, or rather, canvases already begun earlier (“Religious procession in the Kursk province,” “Arrest of a propagandist,” “Refusal of Confession”) gradually relegated “Cossacks” to the background. In the 1880s, Repin completed them, and only then, enriched by great life and creative experience, did he feel the strength to create “Cossacks”. Now the artist knew what the picture should be like - cheerful, cheerful and at the same time majestic, very lively, spontaneous and epic, complete deep meaning and meanings. There was no point in redoing the painting begun in Moscow, so Repin took a blank canvas and wrote another sketch. Now there was no need to write out every figure or detail; the main thing is to imagine what the picture should be like, outline the main groups of Cossacks, determine the ratio of their sizes and the overall scale of the picture. If in the first sketch and version Repin solved the plot as a genre, everyday scene, looking, first of all, for its plastic pictorial expression, now the strictly balanced and majestic form of the picture with historical and heroic content came to the fore. The artist lengthened the format of the painting, building the composition horizontally and rhythmically, like a monumental frieze. He moved the entire group of Cossacks back a little and thus, without excluding the viewer from the action, allowed him at the same time to cover a much larger space with one glance, to imagine the entire Zaporozhye Sich. In 1887, Repin began work on the second and final version of “Cossacks.” In accordance with his plan, he painted his picture as a poem about the freedom of the people. The laughter of the Cossacks, cheerful and mocking, became the meaningful, menacing laughter of the Zaporozhye freemen. It now sounded not only contempt and destructive mockery of the enemy, but also a combat challenge. Laughter remained the main motive of the picture, but along with it, serious and significant faces of the Cossacks appeared. This was no longer just a scene from the life of the Zaporozhye Sich, not only the unbridled joy of the Cossacks, but a military council deciding an important issue. Among the main characters, the audience saw the top of the Zaporozhye army - the chieftain, captain, clerk - and a clear consciousness of their responsibility can be read on their concentrated faces. In the summer of 1890, Repin wrote to one of his friends: “I was working on the overall harmony of the picture. What work it is! Every spot, color, line needs to be expressed together general mood plot and would be consistent with and characterize every subject in the picture. I had to sacrifice a lot and change a lot in colors and personalities. Of course, I didn’t touch the main thing that makes up the essence of the picture - this is it. Sometimes I just work until I drop... I get very tired.” A few months later everything is the same: I haven’t finished “Cossacks” yet. What a difficult thing it is to finish a painting! How many sacrifices must be made for the sake of general harmony!

Ilya Repin. The Cossacks write a response to Sultan Mohammed IV. 1880-1891.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

In 1892, “Cossacks” and more than thirty studies for the painting were exhibited at an exhibition of works by Repin and Shishkin at the Academy of Arts. The painting began its own life, already independent of the author. At exhibitions in Chicago, Budapest, Munich, and Stockholm, “Cossacks” enjoyed constant success. Numerous studies, sketches, and drawings for “The Cossacks” have been distributed to many museums around the world: a sketch of the painting is in the Tretyakov Gallery, the first version is in the Kharkov Art Museum, the main painting is in the Russian Museum in Leningrad. Every day hundreds of spectators fill the halls of museums, and Ataman Serko, the clerk, the judge, “Taras Bulba” and his sons, the Cossack Golota and all the other Cossacks find their way to the hearts of each of them. Created by the brush of a great master, they have found a long existence in the history of Russian painting, firmly and forever entered our lives as a hymn to the patriotism and love of freedom of our native people. The painting was a success and was purchased for a very high price. high price- 35,000 rubles. The price was so high that even Tretyakov was unable to buy it. The painting was purchased by Alexander III.

The end of the 1880s were difficult years for Repin. In 1887 he separated from his wife. His two eldest daughters, Vera and Nadya, remained with him, and the youngest, Tanya, and son Yuri were taken by his mother. In the same year, Ilya Efimovich left the Peredvizhniki, accusing the Partnership of bureaucracy. As a result of all these experiences, mental anguish, and creative overstrain of the previous many years, Repin’s health deteriorated. He wrote to Stasova on March 7, 1889: “I’m just overworked, probably all my nerves: I can hardly work... Only gloomy thoughts due to malaise. You think you’ll die and everything will remain unfinished.” Repin's severe fatigue pulled him into the bosom of nature, and the possession of a large sum of money after the sale of the "Cossacks" gave him the opportunity to purchase the comfortable Zdravnevo estate in the Vitebsk province, on the shore Western Dvina. For some time, Repin was carried away by his new position - he was engaged in adding a workshop to the house and other economic matters. Having rested, in 1892 he created a beautiful portrait of his daughter Vera - “ Autumn bouquet"and daughter Nadya in a hunting suit with a gun.

In 1901, Ilya Efimovich began work on a grandiose (4.62 × 8.53 meters) group portrait “The Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council.” Repin was helped in his work on the painting by his students Kustodiev and Kulikov. The artist gave a brilliantly generalized image of the ruling elite of Russia. Work on this painting continued for several years. Government order for this huge picture Repin accepted in April 1901 on the condition that each of the dignitaries would pose for him personally (48 portrait studies for the painting are currently known). The concept of this grandiose group portrait had famous analogies in European painting, starting with the group portraits of Hals and Rembrandt. Such works presupposed not only portraiture, but also outstanding compositional skill. Repin managed to place 60 figures on a huge canvas. He built a perspective from several points of view, depicted the foreground figures much larger than life, without injuring the dignity of any of the characters: each was recognizable and characteristic, and no one, even the presiding Emperor Nicholas II, was given any visible preference. The conditions of short portrait sessions when performing sketches required extreme concentration of attention from the artist - these conditions were almost extreme. Perhaps it was in such situations that Repin showed best qualities of your talent. In the sketches for the State Council, portrait vigilance and accuracy of the image were combined with amazing pictorial freedom. Fundamental to the characteristics of most of the characters was the important concentration with which high-ranking officials, dignified and at the same time businesslike, bore the burden of public service. The color scheme of the portraits, juxtaposing the “official” colors of Russian officials - black, gold, red, blue and white, imparted ceremonial solemnity to the depicted. In addition to portrait studies, Repin completed several sketches of the magnificent interior of the Round Hall of the Mariinsky Palace in St. Petersburg, where the meeting took place. During the meeting itself, the artist (for the first time in his practice) used photography for his work.

Ilya Repin. A ceremonial meeting of the State Council on May 7, 1901 in honor of the centenary of its establishment. 1903.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

In 1899, Repin married for the second time to Natalya Borisovna Nordman-Severova. A year later, he moved to live with her at the Penaty dacha in the town of Kuokkala on the Karelian Isthmus, a two-hour drive from St. Petersburg. They met in 1900 in Paris at the World art exhibition, where Repin was a member of the international jury. The beloved was nineteen years younger than Ilya Efimovich. Not attractive, not rich, smart, she had the rare ability to suddenly turn into a charming woman, probably love and generosity made her that way. The critical V. Stasov spoke about the lady who captured the artist’s heart in a letter to his brother: “Repin is not a step away from his Nordmansha (these are miracles: truly, no face, no skin, no beauty, no intelligence, no talent, just absolutely nothing, but it’s like it’s sewn to her skirt).” Natalya Nordman was an admiral's daughter, she came from a Russified Swedish family. Known in Russian literature under the pseudonym Natalya Severova, she wrote many pamphlets, stories, treatises, novels, some of which were published with illustrations by Repin. The young wife's literary abilities were encouraged by the painter. Natalya Nordman was a wonderful photographer; at that time this was a rare occupation for women. In many of her photographs, the artist was captured in different forms. She spoke six languages ​​so well that she translated foreign newspapers for Repin directly from the page.

Natalya Nordman did not have a systematic education, which Repin constantly lamented, recognizing her brilliant mind. To become the wife of the aging Repin, Natalya broke up with her family. In the first year of their acquaintance, the lovers settled together in the holiday village of Kuokkala, and soon moved to the Nordman estate in Finland, Penates. At the request of the owner, a workshop was set up here, overlooking the park. Repin’s paintings were created here, Natalya Borisovna wrote her books, and other artists often worked here. Numerous friends of the Repins gathered in the workshop. Repin’s “Wednesdays” were popular among the Russian intelligentsia; they were especially fun at Christmas. Natalya Nordman was a unique woman. She seated the servants at the common table, the guests were offered dishes of exclusively vegetarian cuisine, on the table were dishes made from hay and cutlets from vegetables. The guests were not served at the table; no one except the owner gave them coats. There were posters hanging everywhere in the house: “Don’t wait for the servants, there are none” or “Do everything yourself” and others.

1905: Ilya Repin and Natalya Nordman-Severova in “Penates” with guests - Maxim Gorky and his lover, actress Maria Andreeva. ©AD.

The performance was performed only in public, but in real life all household chores were performed by servants. Among the regulars of the “strange” house there were jokes about the original dishes created at the behest of Natalya Borisovna. Heading to the artist, the guests first stopped at someone's house for lunch, ate their fill, saying that they would not get anything from Repin except hay. In newspapers, the life of the Repins was described with comic horror. Social activities Natalia Nordman was hectic. She was overwhelmed by a truly passionate desire to take care of weak, unfortunate people, and considered practically strangers to her family. From a young age, she was always helping someone: orphans, hungry students, unemployed teachers. As if sensing a savior in her, those who needed help of any kind revolved around her. The famous artist’s admiration for the extraordinary personality of his own wife remained in many portraits of Natalya Borisovna: reading, writing at the table, sitting at the piano... They were made by the master’s hand with warmth and love. Repin created it sculptural portrait, beautifully sculpted, subtly felt. Both of them were people with complex characters, with original views on life, so the spouses often simply tired each other. Getting irritated, they started quarrels, which usually ended in travel. One day, after another outburst, Nordman decided to leave for a while to stop the quarrel, but it turned out that the separation was permanent. The first signs of consumption appeared back in 1905, the woman caught a cold while performing a sandal dance in the snow. Very soon tuberculosis developed. Repin took his sick wife to Italy for several months for treatment. The disease subsided for a while, but later it came close again, and it was impossible to get rid of its close embrace. Nordman went to Italy again, and then to Switzerland. Repin, according to the recollections of his contemporaries, parted with his wife without regret; his departure seemed to draw a line under the long-standing break. Trusted by someone else's family, Natalya Borisovna died in June 1914. Repin was late for her funeral, came later to the cemetery and sketched the grave of the woman with whom he lived for 15 years in a road album.

Repinsky “house-terem” in the Kurortny district of St. Petersburg (Primorskoe highway, 411) © AD

Ilya Repin returned to Penates on the eve of his 70th birthday. After the early death of his wife, he lived for sixteen years, surrounded by friends, admirers, and his daughters moved in with him. After the father's second marriage, the relationship with the children became clearly scandalous. The constant demand for money on their part became the norm in their attitude towards their father. Until the end of his years, Repin bore the burden of supporting not only adult children, but also their households; caring for his grandchildren was also entrusted to his shoulders. In order to satisfy the material needs of numerous family members, the artist distanced himself from his grand artistic plans and was forced to take orders for portraits.

After October Revolution Kuokkala finds itself outside the new Soviet state. Repin never returned to Russia. “Penates” - a house and garden (now a museum-estate) - were located 44 kilometers from Leningrad along the Primorskoye Highway, in the village of Repino (formerly Kuokkala). The affairs of the museum were in charge of the USSR Academy of Arts, to which Repin bequeathed the estate. The Penate house has its own destiny, which included prosperity, death, and rebirth. In 1899, when the house was purchased, it was a small one-story building, in no way suitable for the work of an artist-painter. Gradually Repin rebuilt it, plastering it with all sorts of bright extensions and erecting a second floor, where he equipped two comfortable workshops - a winter and a summer one. In 1940, the Academy of Arts opened a memorial museum in Repin's house. When the Great Patriotic War began, paintings, drawings, sculpture, household items and furnishings were hastily evacuated from Repin’s house to Leningrad. In the summer of 1944, the Karelian Isthmus was liberated, and it became known that Repin’s house no longer existed. There were burnt trees all around, melted pieces of tin and glass were lying around, half-collapsed stove pipes were sticking out, and only the foundation made of local wild stone retained its contours former home. The old foundation stones have long since sprouted new walls, old places saved old things. On June 24, 1962, Repin’s house began to live a new life. Only if you look closely at the tall trees around the house, you will find long scars on them, covered with bark - a memory of that terrible fire.

“Penates” at the beginning of the century was a happy place for communication between a variety of people. The first guests at Penaty were V.V. Stasov and members of his family on July 24, old style, 1904, Repin’s birthday. “...The day passed - wonderful! — Stasov wrote to his brother. — Mademoiselle Nordman took many photographs of us all (she is a great craftswoman), we had dinner, and very formally, in a huge octagonal glass cage that Repin attached to the dacha as a plein-air workshop, in the evening we went to the large sandy mountains above the sea , from where he wrote “What space” - beautiful places!..” The photographs that Stasov wrote about have been preserved.

On August 18, 1904, Gorky came to Penaty. He also settled in Kuokkala, at “Villa Lintula”, about two kilometers from “Penates”. Repin introduced Gorky to Stasov. Photographer KK Bulla did not miss the opportunity to photograph everyone. This meeting marked the beginning of Repin’s famous “Wednesdays” for which “Penates” became famous. Repin was found here tragic events 1905. That year, he communicated a lot with the direct participants in the events, and, above all, with Alexei Gorky, who, after his release from the Peter and Paul Fortress, was allowed to settle again in Kuokkala.

That memorable summer, many of Gorky’s friends often came to Penaty. Repin later recalled how S. Skitalets, I. Rukavishnikov and A. Kuprin were here. There were many guests, they felt free and spoke openly about everything. Repin sketched the guests. He depicted Gorky reading the newly written drama “Children of the Sun,” and next to him listening to V. Stasov and N. Garin-Mikhailovsky. At the same time, he painted portraits of L. Andreev, Gorky’s wife M. Andreeva, V.V. Stasov. For those who came to Penaty, it was important that the artist valued manifestations of the creative spirit in others. He knew how to recognize talent of any kind human activity. Maybe that’s why young people - writers, artists - loved to come to Repin so much, because in “Penates” they could always hear a direct and sincere response to everything that worried them. Everyone who was lucky enough to see Repin at work could not forget this miracle of introduction to creativity. Thus, A.I. Kuprin in 1920 recalled the events of fifteen years ago, when he had the opportunity to observe Repin’s work on the portrait of M.F. Andreeva: “Your palette was lying on the floor (it was in a glass pavilion); You held it with your foot as you bent down to pick up the paint with your brush; they walked away, peered, approached, bowed their head and slightly torso, with the brush now raised up, now directed forward, wrote and quickly turned, and all this was so natural, involuntary, of course, that I saw that it was up to us, outside spectators of your business, you had no interest: we did not exist. It was then, I remember, that I thought: “But how beautiful are all the unconscious movements of a person who, completely forgetting about the impression he makes, is completely occupied with his own creative work or free play..."

In the fall of 1907, Repin met the young writer Korney Chukovsky in Kuokkala, and this acquaintance left a deep mark on the fate of both. Chukovsky witnessed the creation of many of Repin’s paintings, accompanied him on trips and largely shared the artist’s hobbies, and became the first editor literary works Repin, combined in the book “Distant Close”. Repin began to visit Chukovsky especially often after the Chukovskys moved to a house almost opposite Repin’s estate. (Repin helped acquire and even rebuild this house, which has survived to this day.) Chukovsky wrote: “More than once, stormy, young - often naive - disputes began around the tea table: about Pushkin, about Dostoevsky, about magazine news, as well as about exciting us famous writers of that pre-war era - Kuprin, Leonid Andreev, Valery Bryusov, Blok. Poems or excerpts from newly published books were often read. Repin loved this atmosphere of ideological interests and excitement; it was familiar to him from his youth.”

Purely literary “environments” often gathered in “Penates”. After touring the workshop and getting acquainted with the artist’s new paintings, the invitees stayed for lunch. Vegetarianism in Penates was either strict or relaxed, and only in 1918, when it became very difficult to find food, Repin switched to regular food. His favorite dish was, according to Chukovsky, potatoes with sunflower oil. Many photographs of Repin's round table have been preserved. It is original and convenient. The table was made in 1909 according to Repin’s drawings, after he and Nordman reviewed many designs. The table was two-tiered, with a rotating central part. Everything served for dinner was prepared there in advance, and everyone could, by pulling the movable middle handle, bring what he wanted closer to himself. To avoid unnecessary fuss, clean dishes were also placed in advance, and everyone could take what they needed themselves; used dishes were placed in the lower drawers of the table. Among the numerous photographs depicting Repin's guests in his house, there is a photograph where viewers see young Vladimir Mayakovsky standing next to Chukovsky in the Penatov dining room. Repin first saw Mayakovsky in June 1915 and immediately appreciated the poet’s talent, but in his mind he could not connect him with the art of the Futurists. That is why he immediately stated that he did not consider Mayakovsky to be a futurist. Repin liked that Mayakovsky painted a lot. There was even a kind of duel between them: they drew each other at the same time. Repin generally loved to work in company with other artists, rejoicing at the slightest success of another and praising his fellow artist in the most enthusiastic terms.

But his main work was done away from prying eyes. His true life was the hours that he devoted to his favorite work. Initially, Repin worked in that room, which then turned into a dining room with the famous round table. The painting “Black Sea Freemen” was started here, but in 1906 it took place on an easel in the central part of the studio that had just been built on the second floor.

Repin's new painting was dedicated to the Cossacks, but unlike the previous one, where the Cossacks were depicted laughing, here they are immersed in heavy thoughts. This will not seem strange if you know that the picture was painted from 1904 to 1908. And it was not accidental that the outstanding Russian artist came to the need to create a picture depicting those events of Russian history when the people tried to fight for their freedom, depicting not even the struggle itself, but its heroes in tragic moments of reflection. Repin presented the Zaporozhye Cossacks at the moment of anticipation of imminent death, when, returning after a raid on the Turkish shores, they were caught in the Black Sea by a strong storm. Repin presented all shades of human experiences - from dashing prowess to quiet despair. Preparatory work for the painting has been preserved in “Penates”: a small sketch, a sketch of a man being baptized in a Zaporozhye burka, as well as several excellent drawings individual characters. The painting itself is unknown to the general public - in 1919, after numerous alterations (Repin changed the composition, rewrote the figures), it ended up in one of the private collections in Sweden.

In addition to working on new works, Repin often returned to old stories. In “Penates” he again painted the painting “Religious Procession in the Oak Forest”, which he began back in the 1870s, and wrote new versions of the paintings “Ivan the Terrible and Son Ivan” (“Son Killer” in 1909) and “Duel” (“Duel” in 1913). Several dozen portraits were painted, as well as the paintings “On Reconnaissance” in 1904, “Manifestation on October 17, 1905” (from 1907 to 1911), “In Besieged Moscow” and “Defenders of Moscow” in 1912, “Kozma Kryuchkov” and “Belgian King Albert in Battle” (from 1914 to 1915), “Attacking with my sister” (from 1915 to 1917) and “Pushkin on the Neva embankment.” The last painting remained in the artist’s work for more than thirty years.

The fate of the creator, the psychology of artistic creativity - these topics constantly interested Repin. He always willingly painted portraits of artists, painters, musicians and writers. Depict the work of thought, the elusive signs of inspiration, the miracle that precedes birth artistic image, - were the “blue bird” that the artist sought to overtake. The desire to embody the images of artists of the recent past was the subject of the artist’s torment, his hopes and disappointments. On the centennial anniversary of Gogol’s birth, Repin painted a tragic canvas in which he depicted the writer burning the manuscript of the second volume “ Dead souls"("Gogol's self-immolation" in 1909). In 1910, by order of the Lyceum Society, Repin began work on the painting “A.S. Pushkin at the Act at the Lyceum on January 8, 1815.” The artist became so carried away that instead of the intended small sketch, he began to paint a picture on a large canvas, with life-size figures. However, seeing the bewilderment of his customers, he painted another canvas for the Lyceum, much smaller in size. (This well-known painting is in the All-Union Museum of A.S. Pushkin.). However, Repin did not abandon his original plan. This first version was shown at a traveling exhibition, caused many mixed responses, returned to the artist’s studio and later ended up in Czechoslovakia. The work on another “Pushkin” canvas, which remained in “Penates” and stands on an easel in the studio, was much more difficult. Repin decided to depict the figure of Pushkin for the centenary of his birth and painted a large canvas, very decorative and effective. Everyone liked the picture, but Repin was dissatisfied with it and soon completely rewrote the figure. In subsequent years, Pushkin on Repin’s canvas was constantly changing. The photographs conveyed to posterity at least seven or eight different images. By 1910, the poet's image took on a tragic tone. The painting became known as “Pushkin on the Neva embankment. 1835." The setting sun illuminated the face and upper part of the figure, and the Peter and Paul Fortress became the background. After this there were several more revisions, and all the changes took place on one canvas, so that the paint was already applied in a thick layer. Repin scraped it off and immediately wrote another version. Repin’s moods changed, and so did his “Pushkin.” “I’m in despair: my enchanted treasure - Pushkin has not been given to me for more than 15 years... Now, it seems, I’ve told... And suddenly everything will fall apart, and the treasure has failed again,” wrote Repin in 1910, and again in 1917 : “And despite the fact that I’ve clearly, for 20 years, gotten used to not hoping for luck, I throw myself at the attack of this charming Arab...” In 1925: “And “Pushkin” is still not finished.” Even in 1930, Repin tried to remake Pushkin. It was as if he did not want to part with the “beloved poet.” In the end, Repin came closer to the mood that permeated the 1910 version, and this laborious canvas became a monument to both Pushkin and Repin.

Despite his forced seclusion in “Penates” after 1918, Repin did not leave work in the studio, and painting was his salvation from all troubles. He completed the “Religious Procession in the Oak Forest” and painted a collective portrait Finnish artists, musicians and writers, several paintings on gospel subjects. Artists from Soviet Russia, led by Joseph Brodsky, who came to Repin in 1926, unanimously noted the unusual compositional solution and the picturesque expressiveness of Repin’s new painting “Calvary.” The artist was very pleased with the arrival of Brodsky, who had recently been his student. He asked him about everything with interest, but did not dare to go home: Repin was old, he was afraid to leave his well-established studio, where, at 82 years old, he still planned to paint a new picture. He began his work secretly from everyone. The painting was dedicated to the memory of Repin’s favorite composer, Modest Mussorgsky. The Cossacks were depicted dancing the hopak. Repin immediately painted a campfire and figures jumping over the fire. “Hopak” became the third painting depicting the “knights of the spirit,” as they called themselves, so beloved by the artist. In such cheerful company, with a smile of gratitude to fate, the artist approached the finale. He decided in advance where and how he should be buried, and having ordered it, he continued to work and even in his last moments, in oblivion, he still moved his hand in the air, as if working with a brush. He died in Penates September 29, 1930. Ilya Repin was buried in the estate park, which was created by his hands and according to his plans.

When the estate was acquired, the site was a sparse forest located in swampy lowlands. The site had to be drained; for this purpose, five ponds were dug in the future park. All of them are connected by small channels, which, intricately flowing into the streams that existed here, go out to the bay. When an artesian well was drilled in 1914, it began to feed the ponds clean water. In the first years of the estate's existence, two long parallel paths were laid along the park. One of them, starting immediately from the carved gate, was planted with birch trees, the other, located from the house, with young spruce trees (Repin called it Pushkin Alley). When creating their park-garden, the owners of Penaty tried to use the landscape features of these harsh places. Large boulders, of which there are many in the local fields, in the forest and on the shore, arranged in picturesque groups, became the decoration of the garden. Near the house there were flower beds where phlox, fragrant tobacco, lilies bloomed, lilacs, jasmine, viburnum, and rose hips were planted. The banks of the ponds are reinforced with cobblestones, and willows grow near the water. The paths in the park were also paved with small pebbles from the sea. There are wooden bridges with railings across the channels of the ponds and ditches. Some bridges are made of wild stone. At different times, wooden gazebos, decorated with carvings and brightly painted, were erected in different places of the park, on the hills and in the lowlands. And again, wild local stone became both the foundation and the steps. Every corner of the park had a name, but the names changed quickly. The Penatov Garden also became a tourist attraction, and guests who visited here associated it with Repin’s creative personality. We continue to be amazed by the care and tact with which Repin transformed the waste land without disturbing the natural balance in any way. During the difficult 1920s, the park gradually fell into disrepair. The paths were overgrown, the gazebos were destroyed. One of the ponds was filled in. A vegetable garden was planted in the resulting area. However, in general, the park retained its appearance until 1940, when the museum was opened. In 1977, extensive restoration work was carried out on the estate, and new memorial corners were opened in the park.

A documentary film “Delight over the Abyss” was made about Ilya Repin.

Text prepared by Tatyana Halina

Materials used:

I.E. Grabar - "Repin"
O.A. Lyaskovskaya - “I.E. Repin"
A.A. Fedorov-Davydov – “I.E. Repin"
Site materials – www.ilyarepin.ru

Self-portrait

The son of a retired soldier, an icon painter, a talented student, a world-famous artist, a teacher and a great hard worker. All this is Ilya Repin.

Much has been written about the artist interesting books, and I have no desire to compete with truly knowledgeable, talented writers. I will tell you very little about the artist. I won't tell you practically anything. Repin is a whole universe that requires deep study and understanding. Both his biography and his works - all this, even in the briefest summary, cannot be squeezed into one post.

Therefore, I bring to your attention only a sketch, only a timid hint of the theme “Ilya Repin. Life and creativity."

Biography of the artist Ilya Repin

Artist Ilya Efimovich Repin was born on July 24 (August 5), 1844 in the city of Chuguev, in the family of a retired soldier who drove horses for sale, saved a small amount of money and built a house on the banks of the Northern Donets.

The artist’s mother, Tatyana Stepanovna, was a literate and active woman - she not only educated her children, but also organized a small school where both adults and children studied. However, educational activities took a lot of time, but did not provide any income. And Tatyana Stepanovna sewed fur coats from hare fur for sale.

One day, Ilya’s cousin, Trofim, brought into the house watercolor paints. And at that moment, little Ilya’s life changed forever - he saw how the black and white watermelon from the children’s alphabet suddenly came to life, acquired juiciness and brightness. This is how the artist himself later described this event:

To console me, Trofim left me his paints, and from then on I became so engrossed in the paints, clinging to the table, that they barely tore me away for dinner and shamed me, that I became completely wet, like a mouse, from zeal and became stupefied with my paints for these days .

When Ilya was 11 years old, he was sent to topography school - in those days, the profession of a topographer was considered very prestigious and profitable. Ilya studied at school for two years and the educational institution was abolished. Repin found a place for himself in the icon-painting workshop of the artist Bunakov. Very little time passed, and the news about the talented icon painter spread far beyond the borders of the small town. Contractors and customers from all over the province began to come to Chuguev.

In 1860, Repin left the icon-painting workshop and his parents’ home - the young artist was invited to a mobile (nomadic) icon-painting workshop with a salary of 25 rubles per month. The workshop wandered from city to city and in 1863 ended up in the Voronezh province, not far from the town of Ostrogozhsk, where Ivan Kramskoy was born. Someone from local residents told Ilya about a talented fellow countryman who left small homeland, went to St. Petersburg, entered the Academy and even received a gold medal for one of his paintings.

This story struck Repin so much that he began saving money and three months later he was already in St. Petersburg.

The first visit to the Academy upset Ilya Efimovich - his work was criticized, and the young artist’s talent was not identified. Failure did not cool Repin’s desires - he rented a room and got a job at an evening school, where he was very soon named best student schools.

The young artist successfully passed the entrance exams to the Academy and received the right to attend classes as a volunteer with the obligation to pay 25 rubles for training. Repin did not have that kind of money and he turned to Fyodor Pryanishnikov (head of the postal department) for help. And Pryanishnikov helped.

Years of study at the Academy brought the young artist several awards, the title of artist of the first degree and the right to a six-year trip abroad at public expense.

Resurrection of Jairus' Daughter

By 1871, Repin had already gained some fame in the capital - his painting “The Resurrection of Jairus’s Daughter” was very favorably received by the public and critics, and rumors about the young talented artist reached the Mother See. Alexander Porokhovshchikov, the owner of the Slavic Bazaar hotel, ordered the young artist the painting “Collection of Russian, Czech and Polish Composers” for 1,500 rubles. It must be said that Porokhovshchikov’s choice was dictated rather by mercantile considerations - the artist Makovsky asked for 25,000 for this painting. And Repin had a chance to get out of many years of poverty. For the young artist, this amount seemed simply enormous.

In June 1872, the Slavic Bazaar opened to the public. The central painting of the exhibition, “Collection of Russian, Czech and Polish Composers,” brought the author not only money, but also a lot of congratulations and compliments.

But there were also dissatisfied people. Here's what Ivan Turgenev wrote about the painting:

a cold vinaigrette of the living and the dead - strained nonsense that could have been born in the head of some Khlestakov-Porokhovshchikov.

In 1872, Repin married Vera Shevtsova, the sister of a friend in his drawing class. The young couple went on a honeymoon to sketch in Nizhny Novgorod. Soon the newlyweds had a daughter.

As soon as his daughter grew up a little, Repin exercised his right to travel abroad and went with his family to Europe. The family made a voyage to European cities (Rome and Naples, Vienna, Florence and Venice) and stopped in Paris.

Parisian cafe

In a letter to Stasov, he complained that Rome completely disappointed him, and Raphael seemed boring and outdated.

This letter inexplicably fell into the hands of journalists and the magazine “Entertainment” published a terrible caricature, which was accompanied by poetry:

Isn't it true, my reader?

What for judges like Stasov

And turnips are better than pineapples

The artist had a hard time getting used to the French capital, had difficulty recognizing the Impressionists, and even became interested in the work of Manet (they say that “The Parisian Cafe” was written precisely under the influence of Manet).

However, contemporaries reproached the artist for not understanding the beauty of impressionism. Wanting to prove the opposite, Repin painted the painting “Sadko”. However, the search for money to paint this canvas took a lot of time and the artist “cooled down” somewhat. However, the money was found by chance along with the customer. The picture had to be painted. And the artist subsequently greatly regretted what he had done.

Barge haulers on the Volga

In 1876, for the painting “Sadko,” Repin was awarded the title of academician. However, universal recognition does not silence critics. This is what critic Andrei Prakhov wrote about the artist’s work

Excuse me, isn’t this the same Repin who wrote “Burlakov”? What should he do now, if even as a student he was already producing perfections? I am filled with trepidation and go... “Oh, look, maman, a man in an aquarium!”... I wish him to wake up happily...

Upon returning to Russia, the Repin family settled in Chuguev. For many months Polenov invited the artist to Moscow and, finally, Repin decided to move. And the move was very difficult - the artist took with him a huge amount of artistic property. Immediately after the move, Ilya Efimovich fell ill with malaria. The illness was severe and long-lasting, and after recovery, succumbing to Kramskoy’s persuasion, Repin decided to join the Association of Itinerants.

In 1882, the Repin family moved to St. Petersburg - Moscow tired the artist. He brings to the capital sketches of “Cossacks”, “Arrest of the Propagandist”, “Refusal of Confession”, “Ivan the Terrible”, and hundreds of other drawings and sketches.

The couple lived together for 15 years and gave birth to three more children. Their marriage was happy, but Vera Ivanovna was constantly burdened by her wife’s “salon life.” famous artist. And a break occurred, which became a shock for Ilya Efimovich. Stasov (Repin's friend) wrote:

Repin somehow fell silent with his exhibition, and in the summer and autumn he talked a lot about it... What kind of peace is there, what joy, what opportunity to paint your own pictures? How can we prepare an exhibition when... all the troubles, stories, sheer misfortune?

Both during his happy marriage and after the divorce, Repin wrote a lot to his family members, relatives and friends.

In 1894, Ilya Efimovich Repin entered the Academy of Painting as the head of a painting workshop. This was a very difficult period in the artist’s life - he was mercilessly criticized as a teacher and as a leader. In addition, “revolutionary ferment” began among teachers and students. Support was expected from the author of paintings about revolutionaries, but Repin came to the defense of the authorities. Twice he wrote a letter of resignation, and in 1907 he left the Academy completely and irrevocably.

Soon his second wife died.

Procession of the Cross in Kursk Province

The artist settled in Finland and, after the October Revolution, ended up immigrating against his will. I wanted to return to Russia many times, but somehow it didn’t work out. The artist slowly faded away and in September 1930, Ilya Efimovich Repin passed away. Before his death, he wrote a farewell letter:

Farewell, farewell, dear friends! I was given a lot of happiness on earth: I was so undeservedly lucky in life. It seems that I am not at all worthy of my fame, but I did not bother about it, and now, prostrate in the dust, I thank, thank, completely moved good peace, who always glorified me so generously.

Paintings by artist Ilya Repin

Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan

Summer landscape

Evening girls

Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan

Return from the war

Princess Sophia in the Novodevichy Convent

M.I. Glinka during the composition of the opera Ruslan and Lyudmila

Portrait of the poet S. M. Gorodetsky with his wife

Portrait of the poet A.A. Feta

Merchant Kalashnikov

Abramtsevo

Nude model

Autumn bouquet