|
|
Ilya Repin was born in the family of a Russian millitary settler in the Ukrainian town of Chuguyev on the twenty fourth of July, 1844. The boy began his studies at a topography school and continued at the icon-painting workshop where he acquired his first habits as a painter. While he working with a team of icon painters, the young Repin earned fame and respect. In October 1863 he went to St. Petersburg and, after working for two months at a drawing school, he entered the Academy of Arts in January 1864, from which he graduated with a gold medal and the right to go abroad with a scholarship.
Right from the beginning of his artistic career Repin became an equal member of the progressive circles of contemporary intellectuals, his works being of paramount importance fotr Russian Democratic realistic painting.
While still a student Repin painted the picture “Barge Haulers on the Volga” which became the manifesto of the young generation of Russian artists. He depicted Russian people being cruelly exploited yet suppressed and seething with an energy, which they did not suspects in themselves.
From October 1873 he settled in Paris where he stayed for three years. He took a serious interest in French painting, which was at that time undergoing a difficult period in its history, and made a through study of it.
In August 1877, Repin settled in Moscow. He felt lonely in Moscow and did not make friends with Moscow artists. Neverthless, it was here that he experienced the upsurge of his creative powers, and painted or planned his main pictures on the revolutionary and historical themes.
In St. Peterburg a new period began in Repin’s life. In the capital he never touched upon the peasant theme for he no longer came into contact with peasants as he done earlier.
In attempting to paint highly complex subjects, Repin needed new conducive methods. His knowledge of the pecularities of Russian life was unique in its way; the artist’s deep penetration into the psychology of many individuals from the Russian people.
"Zaporozhye Cossacks Writing a Letter to the Turkish Sultan"
“Zaporozhye Cossacks Writing a Letter to the Turkish Sultan” was the last picture in the historical cycle. An epic canvas, it expressed the artist’s dream of a free life for the people full of joy and happiness. In them Repin stressed features born of the pecular atmosphere in Zaporozhye in the seventeenth century and handsomely differentiated sosial groups forming the combat comradeship of Cossacks.
On the picture we can see a big crowd of Cossacks. The picture is mostly in cold grey colors. Numerous shadows of brown prevoil on it’s upper part, over the people. He viewed the Cossa5cks as a real people devoid of any academic abstractions and this is why he used contemporaries as models though, of course, in the picture they appeared completely transfomed by the artist’s imagination. By using his skill he managed to achieve unusual light and shade effects.
To sum total of those features gave an idea of the Zaporozhye Cossacks’ comradeship in one of the most interesting moments of their existence.
