Biography

Ilya Repin was born on August 5 in Chuguev, chief town of Kharkov Province, into a Cossack family. His father, a retired soldier, was engaged in the horse trade. The mother knew literacy and, having established her own small school, taught the children. His mother knew literacy and, having established her own small school, taught local children. Ilya liked to draw from an early age. When the boy was 11 years old, he was sent to a school for topographers - this profession was in demand in Chuguev. Repin studied there for two years, but then the school was shut down. He took a job as an apprentice in an icon-painting workshop and dreamed of entering the Academy of Arts. Three years later Repin decided to go to St Petersburg to study there. He did not enter the Imperial Academy immediately: only after studying at an evening drawing school, where he learnt the painting technique, the young man was admitted to the Academy as a non-matriculating student. He had no money for his studies, but the famous philanthropist Feodor Pryanishnikov, who noticed clear signs of talent in his new ward, assisted the young man. During his years of study in the Northern capital, the young man met many representatives of the creative elite: Repin was in close contact with the painter Ivan Kramskoi, whom he called his teacher in his memoirs, and Vasily Polenov, as well as the reviewer Vladimir Stasov. Ilya Repin studied at the Academy for eight years. During these years he managed to earn great esteem among teachers and fellow students. His talent was recognized by several awards for depicting biblical stories: a small silver medal for the sketch "The Angel of Death Beats All the Firstborn Egyptians" in 1865, a small gold medal for the work "Job and His Mates" in 1869, and a large gold medal of the Academy for the painting "Raising of Jairus' daughter" in 1871.

For this painting he was also entitled to a six-year pension trip abroad.

In 1868, the student made sketches on the banks of the Neva. It was here that he saw the haulers and was struck by the terrible contrast between the dressy, idle loitering public and the draught man power.

He returned to the idea of painting haulers two years later. The canvas “Haulers on the Volga” became a real sensation not only in Russia, but also in Europe. Each of the painted members of the gang was a personality, from whose face you can infer his character and tragedy. Norbert Wolf, a German art historian, said that this painting by Repin bore many similarities to Dante's procession of the damned (The Divine Comedy).

In 1873, Repin went on a long journey, paid for by the academy. Together with his family he visited France, Italy and Austria. In Paris, the artist got acquainted with the Impressionists. . He was particularly inspired by the works of Édouard Manet. Being under the influence of his works, Repin painted “The Paris Café”, for which he was sharply criticized by his Russian colleagues. Repin himself wrote that his painting ‘depicted the main Paris types in the most typical places’. In Paris Repin created “Sadko”, for which he received the title of academician. Repin painted the principal character from Viktor Vasnetsov, who was in Paris at the time. And sketches of the sea kingdom – mysterious, colorful, transfused by the sunlight – were created in the Paris oceanarium.

Returning to Russia in 1876, the artist stayed for a while in his native Chuguev, and in 1877, he moved to Moscow.  In 1878, he joined The Itinerants’ Association. At this time Repin created the painting ‘Tsarevna Sophia’. To immerse in the material, Ilya had been living near the Novodevichy Convent for a year, worked in archives, visited museums and theatre workshops. At the same time he began working with Valentin Serov, whom Repin was training for entering the Academy. In adolescence, Serov lived in the artisan’s house and was practically part of his family circle.

From 1883 to 1900 the artist lived in St. Petersburg. Here he created his most prominent: ‘Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan’, ‘They Did Not Expect Him’, ‘Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks…’. When the artist finished this work, he realized the problems with his right hand due to excessive workload. Repin learnt to paint with his left hand, and even made a special palette, which was attached to his belt. In the same period Repin began to receive governmental commission to paint. Thus, in 1884, he created the canvas "Reception of district elders by Alexander III in the courtyard of the Petrovsky Palace in Moscow”. Later, in the early 1900s, Repin painted the multi-figure composition "Jubilee Meeting of the State Council" commissioned by the Emperor.

For a while, having fallen under the influence of Alexander Benois and Sergei Diaghilev, Repin became a member of ‘The World of Art’. After a while, the paths of the talented artisans diverged, and Repin enter into polemics with decadents.

In 1891 he painted a portrait of Modest Mussorgsky. This work delighted critics and the public. Its real significance lies in the fact that Ilya Repin, faithful to his constant endeavor to portray the truth of life, even at such a dramatic moment did not flatter his model. He painted Mussorgsky in the hospital ward. The terminally ill composer died a few days after the canvas was finished.

From 1894 Repin was teaching in the Academy of Arts. One of his major instructions was: ‘The sense of proportion! Do not forget about the sense of proportion!’

After the October Revolution, the painter that lived in his estate "Penaty" found himself outside the new, socialist Russia – in the Finnish Kuokkala. Despite the proposals of the Soviet government to return to the USSR, he never decided to take this step. On September 29, 1930, the artist's life journey came to an end.

The artist's first wife was the sister of his friend – Vera Shevtsova. The marriage was not successful, and after 15 years the couple divorced, ‘dividing’ the children: the older ones were taken by their father, and the younger ones stayed with their mother. The second wife of the artist was Natalia Nordman, with whom he lived in Penaty. The marriage turned out to be happy, although Nordman was known as "the weirdo”. In 1948, Kuokkala, which after the Second World War became part of the USSR, was renamed into Repino.

Ref.:
https://biographe.ru/znamenitosti/ilya-repin
https://obrazovaka.ru/alpha/r/repin-ilya-repin-ilya
https://dzen.ru/a/ZftQEUY_OUnJhykr
https://gallery24rusart.ru/articles/ilya-repin-biografiya-tvorchestvo-istoricheskie-obrazy-rossii-v-kartinah-hudozhnika-realista/
https://histrf.ru/read/biographies/ilya-efimovich-repin
https://www.culture.ru/persons/8244/ilya-repin