Barge haulers on the Volga location. Truth and fiction in “Barge Haulers on the Volga”: what barge hauler labor actually was like
The painting “Barge Haulers on the Volga” was painted in 1873. The history of the creation of this masterpiece is described in great detail by Repin himself in the book “Distant Close”. For the first time the idea to create similar work, which fully fits into the concept critical realism, came to the mind of an artist in the 1860s. Once Repin saw a scene while walking along the Neva River, when a smart crowd of summer residents found themselves next to tattered, beggarly, dirty barge haulers. Repin was so impressed by this contrasting picture that he immediately decided to create a masterpiece. In 1870, he took a trip along the Volga with the aim of creating etudes and portrait sketches. As a result of trips along the Volga in 1873, a picture was painted that shows hard life barge haulers. The construction of the picture is based in such a way that a procession moves from the depths towards the viewer. At the same time, the figures do not obscure each other. Repin did it masterfully. We see characters, each of which can be considered as an independent portrait line. Each character's face is individual. The amazing natural persuasiveness is successfully intertwined with the conventionality of the picture form. The artist divided the string of barge haulers into three groups, each of which has its own character, human types, temperament. WITH central character paintings by barge hauler Kanin, who heads the top four, Repin compares ancient philosophers. To the right of Kanin is a barge hauler, personifying the natural density of strength. On the right is “Ilka the sailor,” who looks directly at the viewer with his gaze and expresses anger and hatred. Located in the center, Kanin appears to be the middle character between these two opposites. The other characters in the picture are no less characteristic. Full of life and the hopeful young man Larka, who seems to be trying to free himself from the straps, and is not accustomed to this kind of work, the phlegmatic old man, who manages to fill his pipe as he goes, the black-haired, gloomy Greek, who turned around slightly in order to call a comrade from the last three, who is here... it will collapse on the sand. Of course, the “super-plot” of Repin’s barge haulers on the Volga is the beginning and end of the journey, a thoughtful narrative about the existence of people who are connected by one strap every day. Repin's painting Barge Haulers on the Volga was enthusiastically received not only by viewers, but also by critics. Subsequently, Repin painted another picture - “Barge Haulers Going to the Ford,” which also depicts the hard life of the Russian people.
Plot
On the river bank, barge haulers are harnessed and pulling the ship. Based on Repin’s painting, which seems to be even in school history textbooks, the image of a beggar, a ragamuffin, who has no other way to earn a living except through hellish labor, has been replicated. Repin also throws wood on the social fire: on the horizon one can see a symbol of progress - a tugboat that could replace the barge hauler, ease his lot, but for some reason is not used.
The gang is led by three “roots”: in the center is the barge hauler Kanin, reminiscent of the philosopher Repin, a bearded man personifying primitive strength, and the embittered “Ilka the Sailor”. Behind them are the rest, among whom stand out a tall, phlegmatic old man filling his pipe, the young man Larka, as if trying to free himself from the strap, the black-haired “Greek”, who seems to be calling out to a barge hauler ready to collapse on the sand.
The characters are portrayed so emotionally and vividly that one readily believes this story. However, do not rush to judge the whole phenomenon in the economy based on one picture. Tsarist Russia. The fact is that the barge hauler’s work process was different.
On the barges there was a large drum on which a cable was wound with three anchors attached to it. The movement began with people getting into a boat, taking a rope with anchors with them, and sailing upstream. Along the way they dropped anchors. The haulers on the barge clung to the cable with their jowls and walked from the bow to the stern, selecting the rope, and there, at the stern, it was wound onto a drum. It turned out that they were walking backwards, and the deck under their feet was moving forward. Then they again ran to the bow of the barge, and all this was repeated. This is how the barge floated upstream to the first anchor, which was then raised, then to the second and third. What Repin described happened if a pilot ran a barge aground. Such work was paid separately.
As for money and grub, the barge hauler was far from being as poor as the artist showed. They worked in artels and before the start of the shipping season they agreed on grub. They were given bread, meat, butter, sugar, salt, tea, tobacco, and cereals per day. After lunch we always slept. And money for summer season a good barge hauler earned so much that in winter time could do nothing. Hundreds of thousands of people were employed in the barge fishing industry. In the overwhelming majority of cases they went there voluntarily, as if they were going to waste work.
Context
"Barge Haulers on the Volga" - early work Repina. He was not yet 30 years old when the canvas was completed. At that time, the artist was a student at the Academy and mainly wrote in biblical stories. Repin turned to realism, it seems, unexpectedly for himself. And it was like this. At the end of the 1860s, he and his fellow students went to sketch in Ust-Izhora (a village near St. Petersburg). The embankment, the gentlemen are strolling, everything is decorous and noble. And suddenly the impressionable Repin noticed a gang of barge haulers.
“Oh God, why are they so dirty and ragged! - exclaimed the artist. -...The faces are gloomy, sometimes only a heavy glance flashes from under a strand of tangled hanging hair, the faces are sweaty and shiny, and the shirts are completely dark. This is the contrast with this clean, fragrant flower garden of the gentlemen.”
During that trip, Repin made a sketch of a painting, the plot of which was based on the contrast between barge haulers and summer residents. The composition was criticized by the artist’s friend Fyodor Vasiliev, calling it artificial and rational. It was he who advised Repin to go to the Volga and finalize the plot, and at the same time helped with money - the painter himself was extremely strapped for money.
Repin settled in Samara region for the whole summer, got to know the locals, asked about life. “I must admit frankly that I was not at all interested in the question of everyday life and the social structure of the contracts between barge haulers and their owners; I questioned them only to give some seriousness to my case. To tell the truth, I even absentmindedly listened to some story or detail about their relationship with the owners and these bloodsucking boys.”
Much more artist I was captivated by the very image of the barge hauler: “This one, with whom I caught up and keep pace - this is the story, this is the novel! What about all the novels and all the stories before this figure! God, how wonderfully his head is tied with a rag, how his hair is curled towards his neck, and most importantly, the color of his face!” This is how Repin described Kanin, a barge hauler, a low-haired priest whom he met on the Volga. The artist considered it “the pinnacle of the Burlatsky epic.”
The public saw the painting in 1873 in St. Petersburg at art exhibition works of painting and sculpture intended to be sent to Vienna for the World Exhibition. Reviews were mixed.
Dostoevsky, for example, wrote: “It is impossible not to love them, these defenseless ones, you cannot leave without loving them. One cannot help but think that he should, really owes it to the people... After all, this burlatsky “party” will be seen in dreams later, in fifteen years it will be remembered! If they weren’t so natural, innocent and simple, they wouldn’t make an impression and wouldn’t create such a picture.” Repin was praised by Kramskoy, Stasov, and all those who would later become Wanderers.
Academic circles called the painting “the greatest profanation of art,” “the sober truth of miserable reality.” One of the journalists saw on the canvas “various civic motives and thin ideas, transferred to the canvas from newspaper articles... from which realists draw their inspiration.”
After St. Petersburg, the picture went to Vienna. There she was also greeted by some with delight, others with bewilderment. “Well, tell me, for God’s sake, what difficult reason compelled you to paint this picture? You must be a Pole?.. Well, what a shame - Russian! But I have already reduced this antediluvian method of transport to zero, and soon there will be no mention of it. And you paint a picture, take it to the World Exhibition in Vienna and, I think, dream of finding some stupid rich man who will buy these gorillas, our bast shoes,” said one of the ministers.
And yet the painting found a buyer. He became Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, which is why the canvas was closed to the general public, who could only see it at exhibitions.
1. Towpath
A trampled coastal strip along which barge haulers walked. Emperor Paul forbade the construction of fences and buildings here, but that was all. Neither bushes, nor stones, nor swampy places were removed from the barge haulers’ path, so the place written by Repin can be considered an ideal section of the road.
2. Shishka - foreman of barge haulers
He became a dexterous, strong and experienced person who knew many songs. In the artel that Repin captured, the big shot was the pop figure Kanin (sketches have been preserved, where the artist indicated the names of some of the characters). The foreman stood, that is, fastened his strap, in front of everyone and set the rhythm of the movement. The barge haulers took each step synchronously with their right leg, then pulling up with their left. This caused the whole artel to sway as it moved. If someone lost their step, people collided with their shoulders, and the cone gave the command “hay - straw,” resuming movement in step. Maintaining rhythm on the narrow paths over the cliffs required great skill from the foreman.
3. Podshishelnye - the closest assistants of the bigwig
By left hand From Kanin comes Ilka the sailor - the artel leader, who purchased provisions and gave the barge haulers their salaries. In Repin’s time it was small - 30 kopecks a day. For example, this is how much it cost to cross the whole of Moscow in a cab, driving from Znamenka to Lefortovo. Behind the backs of the underdogs were those in need of special control.
4. “Enslaved”
“The bonded ones,” like this man with a pipe, managed to squander their wages for the entire voyage even at the beginning of the journey. Being indebted to the artel, they worked for grub and did not try very hard.
5. Cook Stall
The cook and falcon headman (that is, responsible for the cleanliness of the latrine on the ship) was the youngest of the barge haulers - the village boy Larka, who experienced real hazing. Considering his duties to be more than sufficient, Larka sometimes made trouble and defiantly refused to pull the burden.
6. "Hack workers"
In every artel there were simply careless people, like this man with a tobacco pouch. On occasion, they were not averse to shifting part of the burden onto the shoulders of others.
7. "Overseer"
The most conscientious barge haulers walked behind, urging the hacks on.
8. Inert or inflexible
Inert or inert - this was the name of the barge hauler, who brought up the rear. He made sure that the line did not catch on the rocks and bushes on the shore. The inert one usually looked at his feet and rested to himself so that he could walk at his own rhythm. Those who were experienced but sick or weak were chosen for the inert ones.
9-10. Bark and flag
Type of barge. These were used to transport Elton salt, Caspian fish and seal oil, Ural iron and Persian goods (cotton, silk, rice, dried fruits) up the Volga. The artel was based on the weight of the loaded ship at the rate of approximately 250 poods per person. The cargo pulled up the river by 11 barge haulers weighs at least 40 tons.
The order of the stripes on the flag was not paid much attention to, and was often raised upside down, as here.
11 and 13. Pilot and water tanker
The pilot is the man at the helm, in fact the captain of the ship. He earns more than the entire artel combined, gives instructions to the barge haulers and maneuvers both the steering wheel and the blocks that regulate the length of the towline. Now the bark is making a turn, going around the shoal.
Vodoliv is a carpenter who caulks and repairs the ship, monitors the safety of the goods, and bears financial responsibility for them during loading and unloading. According to the contract, he does not have the right to leave the bark during the voyage and replaces the owner, leading on his behalf.
12 and 14. Line and sail
Becheva is a rope to which barge haulers lean. While the barge was being led along the steep yar, that is, right next to the shore, the line was pulled out about 30 meters. But the pilot loosened it, and the bark moved away from the shore. In a minute, the line will stretch like a string and the barge haulers will have to first restrain the inertia of the vessel, and then pull with all their might.
At this moment the cone will start singing:
“Here they go and take them,
Right and left took over.
Oh once again, once again
One more time, one more time..."
and so on until the artel gets into a rhythm and moves forward.
15. Carving on bark
Since the 16th century, it was customary to decorate Volga barks with intricate carvings. It was believed that it helps the ship rise against the current. The country's best specialists in ax work were engaged in barking. When steamships displaced wooden barges from the river in the 1870s, craftsmen scattered in search of work, and wooden architecture A thirty-year era of magnificent carved platbands has begun in Central Russia. Later, carving, which required high skill, gave way to more primitive stencil cutting.
When Dostoevsky saw this painting by Ilya Repin, he was very happy that the artist did not put any social protest into it.
In “A Writer’s Diary” Fyodor Mikhailovich noted:
“...barge haulers, real barge haulers and nothing more. Not one of them shouts from the picture to the viewer: “Look how unhappy I am and to what extent you are in debt to the people!” And this alone can be put in greatest merit to the artist. Nice, familiar figures: two advanced barge haulers almost laugh, at least they don’t cry at all, and they certainly don’t think about their social position. The soldier is cunning and false, he wants to fill his pipe. The boy is serious, shouts, even quarrels - an amazing figure, almost the best in the picture and equal in concept to the rearmost barge hauler, a dejected little peasant, weaving separately, whose face is not even visible...
After all, you can’t help but love them, these defenseless ones, you can’t leave without loving them. One cannot help but think that he should, really owes it to the people... After all, this burlatsky “party” will be dreamed of later, in fifteen years it will be remembered! If they weren’t so natural, innocent and simple, they wouldn’t make such an impression and wouldn’t create such a picture.”
Dostoevsky could not even imagine how many banalities would still be said about this picture and what an invaluable document it would now be for those who want to understand the organization of labor of barge haulers.
Ilya Repin. Barge haulers on the Volga. 1870-1873 State Russian Museum.
“Skill is such that you can’t even see the skill” Leo Tolstoy (about Ilya Repin).
Repin (1844-1930) wrote “Burlakov” when he was not yet 30. He had a long and fruitful life ahead of him. Masterpieces “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan”, “They Didn’t Expect” or “The Cossacks Write a Letter to the Turkish Sultan”.
But “Barge Haulers” will always be his first and main masterpiece. Remembering Repin, we remember exactly this picture. The pinnacle of his creativity was reached at the very beginning of his journey.
The picture has always been popular. And during the artist’s lifetime. And even more so in Soviet era. She was everywhere. In textbooks, on calendars, postage stamps and postcards.
When a painting is too popular, the illusion of familiarity with it appears. Therefore, few people have a desire to learn something more about it.
But since you are reading this article, it means you have overcome this barrier. Therefore, I will be happy to take a closer look at the picture with you.
Were there barge haulers in painting before Repin?
IN European painting Repin was not the first to address the topic of barge haulers.
He created more than one painting on this topic. But if you take this picture from 1870, it is more about the landscape than the barge haulers.
Alexey Savrasov. Barge haulers. 1870 Private collection. Theartnewspaper.ru We rather admire the pre-rain sky. And the barge haulers are just a detail here, but not the main thing. This picture is very different from Repinskaya.
In Europe, barge haulers were also used. And a lot of works have also been created on this topic. For example, Italian barge haulers. Also created before the Repinskys.
Telemaco Signorini. Barge haulers. 1864. Private collection. Nyest.hu In Signorini, barge haulers are depicted next to a well-dressed gentleman and girl. Apparently for contrast. But compared to Repin’s, they don’t look like ragamuffins. Although they were probably no richer than ours.
Imagine what would have happened if Repin had placed this gentleman with a girl and a dog on his beach next to the barge haulers! It would have been a formal attack on the soulless empire. Which can do nothing about the monstrous gap between rich and poor.
In reality, Repin conceived his painting this way from the very beginning. After all, it was precisely this contrast that struck him in 1868. Then on the Neva he saw barge haulers for the first time. Dirty, ragged and sullen, they trudged dark spot along the beach. A motley and laughing crowd of summer residents was walking along the same beach.
But Repin was dissuaded from such an open provocation by his friend Fyodor Vasiliev (you probably know him from the masterpiece “ Wet meadow”).
“Barge Haulers” were not the first barge haulers for Repin himself
In 1870, after two years of work, Repin created his “Burlakov”. Sends them to the exhibition. Receives a medal. And... decides to rewrite the picture.
Works for another 3 years. Even asking the leadership of the Academy of Arts to shorten his retirement trip to Europe from 6 years to 3 years in order to remake Burlakov.
So we won’t see what “Barge Barge Haulers” were like initially. Above them is the second version of the painting.
There is also a preserved version. “Barge Haulers Wading.” This painting is now in Tretyakov Gallery.
Ilya Repin. Barge haulers wading. 1872 Artchive.ru And there was also the option “Barge Haulers Walking Through a Windfall.” But Repin destroyed it. It was rejected by Ivan Shishkin, who pointed out to Repin that the trees were depicted incorrectly.
And over the course of 5 years of work, Repin created an uncountable number of sketches and drawings.
Ilya Repin. Sketch for the painting “Barge Haulers on the Volga”. 1870 State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg. Istpravda.ru Topicality of “Barge Haulers”
So, Repin abandoned straightforward topicality. And I didn’t paint ruddy summer residents next to the barge haulers.
But this did not help Repin. He has built a reputation for himself as an artist who writes about the toil of the oppressed. And the public expected such works from him in the future.
But Repin in every possible way disavowed the role of “artist of the oppressed.” Subsequently tried to similar topics don't come back.
He even directly admitted that when talking with barge haulers, he listened with half an ear to their complaints about hard fate. He was only interested in their faces and poses.
But what can you do, Repin himself is “to blame.” I painted a steamship in the distance as the personification of progress. This can be read clearly: there is something to be used as a tug, but people are still being tortured.
And the barge haulers themselves are too shabby. They are not wearing clothes, but rags the color of sweat and dirt. Remember how clean and tidy barge haulers are in Italy.
To top it off, Repin showed his barge haulers against the backdrop of an idyllic landscape. Late spring bright sky, beige sand, cloudless sky. Against such a background, the shabbyness of these poor fellows looks even more defiant.
In fact, Repin did not exaggerate here. Tramps and homeless people often went to barge haulers. Sometimes peasants after lean years, that is, experiencing severe need. After all, although the work was hard, it helped to live in the off-season (summer and winter), without thinking about hunger.
In Soviet times, the painting “Barge Haulers” also began to be perceived as a symbol of the oppression of the people by the “damned” bourgeoisie. That is why the Soviet government so wanted Repin to return from emigration. Considering him a harbinger of “correct” painting, that is, socialist realism.
Who posed for Repin for “Barge Haulers”
The depicted barge haulers are real people. Repin personally knew all of them and invited them to conversations.
The artist lamented that many came to pose after washing and cutting their hair. Which did not correspond to the artist’s idea.
But then Kanin came (the one at the forefront of the team). A man of about 45. He did not make any special preparations for the meeting with the artist. I didn’t go to the bathhouse, I didn’t put on my holiday shirt. Repin immediately realized that he would be among his “barge haulers.”
Kanin once sang in church choir. He was stripped of his hair, that is, deprived ecclesiastical rank. And for 10 years now he has been “pulling the burden.” He “built a career” in the barge hauler artel. Thanks to his intelligence and perseverance, he became the leader of the team, a “big shot”. He knows best coastline. He sets the pace for the whole group.
He reminded me of Repin Greek philosopher, who fell into slavery to the Romans. A man of remarkable intelligence performs the most difficult and primitive work, albeit as a headman.
By right hand from Kanin - Nizhny Novgorod fighter. In winter, he earns money by participating in fist fights. And in the spring and autumn it “pulls the strap.” He is not more than 40 years old, he still has enough physical strength. He is placed in the first team, as one of the strongest and most conscientious.
On the left hand of Kanin is the sailor Ilka. He knows how to work hard and persevere, so he is also in the front row. But it is clear that he is a gloomy person. He alone pierces us with an unkind gaze. This one will easily swear and send you to hell.
Behind the first three is a man with a pipe. He is dressed more decently than anyone else. His shirt is not rags, like his comrades. He is wearing a real hat, not a tied rag.
Most likely, he is from the peasants. Who has a wife or mother at home. Who watch his clothes. He is clearly being lazy: he walks straight, without pulling the strap too much. And he even manages to smoke a pipe.
A man of about 60 follows him. He is emaciated and desperately wipes sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. Most likely, he is sick with consumption, and this is his last hauling season.
Ilya Repin. Detail of “Burlakov on the Volga”. 1873 State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg The young village boy Larka especially catches our eye. Apparently his family sent him to earn extra money. Maybe he couldn’t get along with his father and left home. Tries to feed itself. Obviously, this is almost the first time he has pulled the strap. Which he just can’t get used to.
Behind him, on the contrary, is a very experienced barge hauler. The strong old man, without weakening his strength, still manages to stuff the pouch.
Between them is a barge hauler, who is seen worse than others. All you can see is that he is a Kalmyk.
Ilya Repin. Fragment of the painting “Barge Haulers on the Volga”. 1873, St. Petersburg Retired soldier Zotov follows the old man with a tobacco pouch. He’s wearing all that’s left of his uniform: a cap and a jacket, albeit sleeveless.
Behind him is a man who looks like a Greek in his clothes and characteristic nose.
Last comes the man with the most depressing appearance. It feels like he's about to collapse exhausted. His hands are hanging limply. The head fell so low on the chest that the face was not visible. He most likely evokes the strongest pity in you.
The last to be put into the “harness” were the experienced, but weak or sick. They walked a little apart, in their own rhythm and looked at their feet. Since their function was to ensure that the twine did not touch the stones. So his dejected posture and lagging behind the others does not mean that he is feeling bad.
Let's sum it up
“Barge Haulers on the Volga” is an iconic painting by Repin. But not everyone knows why. This is a hard-won masterpiece: 5 years of preparation, hundreds of sketches and drawings, close communication with barge haulers, reworking the painting.
The famous painting by Ilya Efimovich Repin Barge Haulers on the Volga, the artist painted it during 1870-1873. Ilya Efimovich was inspired to paint the painting Barge Haulers on the Volga by his trip to sketches along the Neva, in the vicinity of Ust-Izhora back in 1869.
Having enjoyed the beauty of nature, the artist was very touched by life ordinary people, barge haulers pulling a heavy barge. Tired, dirty barge haulers in tattered clothes contrasted greatly with the rich and magnificently dressed public usually standing not far away on the shore. This whole scene really struck the painter, evoking sympathy and pity for these people in his soul. Why not bring this story to life on canvas?
thought Ilya Efimovich, realizing in advance that this picture would have many critics, especially since the idea of the picture could evoke in the viewer sympathy and pity for these disadvantaged people. And so it happened, creating the first sketch of barge haulers, painted in watercolor according to the planned plan, exhausted and dirty barge haulers pulling the strap, opposite a well-dressed rich audience having fun.
Such a plot was immediately criticized by Fyodor Vasiliev as an artificially faked and meaningless work. Of course, Repin was aware that the composition of the painting ran counter to the worldview of both academic and secular circles.
Therefore, in the future, Repin refused direct denunciation, focusing specifically on the barge haulers, trying to show difficult life these people in their future picture Barge haulers on the Volga, thereby showing the characters of these people and nothing more.
At the same time, Repin had some problems at the Academy of Arts; not wanting to take exams in general education subjects that were not interesting in his opinion, the artist decided to submit a letter of resignation, which he was politely refused. Apparently the academy understood that dismissing such a master could lead to a lot of trouble for the academy itself.
At these times, the new movement, the partnership of the Itinerants, was just gaining strength; their ideology ran counter to academic foundations. Instead of dismissal, Repin was offered an internship abroad, also paying for a tour along the Volga from the city of Tver to Saratov. While traveling along the Volga together with his colleagues, among whom was Fyodor Vasiliev.
In 1870, in the village of Shiryaevo, a dozen kilometers from Samara, he created a small pencil sketch, with which Repin also painted the first version of the painting in oil, small in size about 23 by 50 cm. The first exhibition of Repin’s painting with barge haulers was demonstrated in Saint Petersburg e, which was awarded a prize.
While working with the painting, the Artist often reworked the plot, returning to the sketches; being among the barge haulers, Repin became closely acquainted with them. One of the characters in the film, Kanin, is a former priest, a bright personality, a man with a difficult fate.
In the painting Barge Haulers on the Volga, the infinitely wide Volga River opens before the viewer, along which merchant ships float; in the foreground is a winding sandy shore, along which a team of barge haulers are pulling a merchant ship by the straps; the merchant woman on the ship is closely watching the work of the barge haulers. Our main character pictures of the barge hauler Kanin, as the leader of the pack, leads the entire artel uncontrollably forward.
Among the characters in the picture, the character of a young boy stands out noticeably; his name is Larka. He differs significantly from his older comrades, who are passionate in spirit, with his youthfully impatient character and lack of experience, in contrast to the hardy, wise Kanin and the curly bearded man, who to Kanin’s right patiently pulls his shoulder straps. An old man, exhausted from unbearable work, who can barely drag his feet next to Larka.
In a gang of barge haulers, Repin collected characters different types people, dividing them into different groups characters from the most strong in spirit and wise in age to the emaciated and weak, who seem not quite capable of performing such hard work, this, of course, is the whole color and contrast of the characters of the barge haulers, for example, Ilka the sailor with a noticeably embittered look looking directly at the viewer, very diligently pulls the strap, character Ilka is not simple; he can swear loudly, hating everything and everyone in the life around him.
Following Kanin, a tall man with a smoking pipe stands out, pulling his strap half-heartedly, and an old man, exhausted from work, wiping sweat from his forehead. Of the entire gang of barge haulers, the first three characters on whom the most significant traction force hangs are significantly different compared to the others who reluctantly pull their straps. In the images of barge haulers, Repin tried to show different characters people in whom there is also humility to their difficult fate, protest in life, embitterment and simplicity of ordinary people with a difficult fate.
After many sketches and sketches, the painting Barge Haulers on the Volga was finally completed by Repin in 1873, and was exhibited at an exhibition of paintings, with the next sending of works for exhibition at the World Exhibition in Vienna. As expected, the painting had many fans and those who did not like the work, there were those who very harshly criticized the master, among them was the ardent academician Fyodor Bruni, he responded negatively to the painting as a great profanation in the fine arts.
The then publicist Alexei Suvorin responded with numerous criticism of Repin’s work. Despite this, many colleagues and progressive-minded people of that time accepted the picture enthusiastically, for example Kramskoy and Stasov. The writer Fyodor Dostoevsky spoke positively about it as a complete, authentic and truthful work. However, on world exhibition The painting was awarded a bronze medal; Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich really liked the painting, who bought it for three thousand rubles.
The main canvas measures 131.5 cm by 281 cm, the painting is in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, the smaller canvas Barge Haulers wading, 1872, size 62 cm by 97 cm is in the Tretyakov Gallery
