Taking a rest, Ilya Repin Coffee

Ilya Yefimovich Repin (5 August – September ) was a Ukrainian and Russian realist painter. He was the most renowned Russian artist of the th century, when his position in the world of art was comparable to that of Leo Tolstoy in literature. He played a major role in bringing Russian art into the mainstream of European culture. His major works include Barge Haulers on the Volga (), Religious Procession in Kursk Province () and Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (–). Repin was born in Chuguyev, in Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire (now Chuhuiv in Ukraine, Kharkiv Region) into a family of “”military settlers””.[3] His father traded horses and his grandmother ran an inn. He entered military school to study surveying. Soon after the surveying course was cancelled, his father helped Repin to become an apprentice with Ivan Bunakov, a local icon painter, where he restored old icons and painted portraits of local notables through commissions. In he went to St. Petersburg Art Academy to study painting but had to enter Ivan Kramskoi preparatory school first. He met fellow artist Ivan Kramskoi and the critic Vladimir Stasov during the s, and his wife, Vera Shevtsova in (they remained married for ten years). In – he showed at the Salon in Paris and at the exhibitions of the Itinerants’ Society in Saint Petersburg. He was awarded the title of academician in . In Repin travelled to Zaporizhia[citation needed] to gather material for the Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. His Religious Procession in Kursk Province was exhibited in , and Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan in . In he published the Letters on Art collection of essays. He taught at the Higher Art School attached to the Academy of Arts from . In he purchased an estate, Penaty (the Penates), in Kuokkala, Finland (now Repino, Saint Petersburg). In he was awarded the Legion of Honour. In he traveled with his common-law wife Natalia Nordman to the World Exhibition in Italy, where his painting October and his portraits were displayed in their own separate room. In Repin worked on his book of reminiscences, Far and Near, with the assistance of Korney Chukovsky. He welcomed the February Revolution of , but was rather skeptical towards the October Revolution. Soviet authorities asked him a number of times to come back, he remained in Finland for the rest of his life. Celebrations were held in in Kuokkala to mark Repin’s th birthday, followed by an exhibition of his works in Moscow. In a jubilee exhibition of his works was held in the Russian Museum in Leningrad. Repin died in and was buried at the Penates. Quote:Wikipedia