The remarkable Russian artist Ilya Repin lived a very long life - 86 years, and even at a venerable age did not lose interest in women, or in artwork, and in communication with friends, so that his old age could only be envied. And it is not only in the excellent genetics, Repin still adhered to a healthy lifestyle - drank little and without much desire, slept in the cold, daily gymnastics, thanks to the efforts of his wife Natalia Nordman got into vegetarianism, although here was not without ridicule from his friends: “Repin eats hay. But Repin was not too offended, and survived most of them, so it is still a question of who was right in the end. When his right hand failed, he began to write with his left, but he did not give up painting.
Ilya Repin. Self-portrait at artwork
In 1920, Repin lives in Finland, successfully holds exhibitions, and journalists across the board praise the artist, noting the “young temperament” and “irrepressible desire for life. Even at 80 years old, he continued to smoke strong cigars - the only bad habit that Repin could not give up, swimming in the sea and writing paintings. However, there was nothing surprising - Repin's father lived to 90 years, and his mother all his life was characterized by an active and irrepressible temperament, which the artist inherited. Thanks to him, he treated artwork with real fierceness, not too distracted by all sorts of ailments.
Portrait of Kornei Chukovsky
Once fell ill with fever and Kornei Chukovsky, noticing that Repin has a fever, offered him to measure his temperature. Repin refused: “maybe under a degree I work best, and all the thermometers - for bums”.
And Repin was also a real optimist and said that “mope in silence - it's not for me, let it is better to do it young idle decadents".
And the first serious illness with Repin came from overzealousness in childhood. One day his cousin brought him in the paint, and little Ilyusha began to draw, and so fascinated that to tear him away from this occupation was almost impossible. His parents argued, but to no avail. Everything ended with a profuse nosebleed, the boy was put to bed, and thanks to the efforts of a “hearty” clichéd neighbor, who said that “Ilyusha is bound to die, and the nose has already sharpened,” the parents thought that it was necessary to order a shroud and a small coffin. Fortunately, everything went well, although the bleeding annoyed Repin all his life when he argued particularly heatedly, during extreme heat or because of excessive fatigue.
Nude model from the back.
Repin was sincerely convinced that movement is life. He could not sit still, talking to the interlocutor, jumped up and walked back and forth. He loved to travel, traveled all over Europe, but when traveling, visiting museums and getting acquainted with masterpieces of painting, could not do without something not to write himself. “More than three days in a row idle can not” - said all Repin and in his studio confirmed these words.
Negro
By the way, the labor of the artist in those years was physically demanding, and Repin was accustomed to do everything himself. In his old age, he hired an assistant to clean the palette and put in order, but he soon paid off - could not withstand the load. But earlier Repin used to do this artwork after a whole day spent at the easel, sighing not the most fragrant smell of paints and solvents.
Nude model
But even this active Repin seemed not enough, and he willingly worked in the garden, handmade his own manor in Kuokkala, and in the evening, together with his wife Natalia Nordman mused and arranged “dance orgies”, favor Repin loved to dance and knew how to dance, giving himself to this business with his own self-forgetfulness. Such energy impressed all the artist's guests, who would have been happy to go to bed, but the irrepressible Repin did not give rest.
Gopak
So, it is hardly necessary to be surprised by the number of paintings painted by Repin and the diversity of his work. Fierce Repin was also in love, he waited until he grew up nine-year-old sister of a friend Verochka Shevtsova and finally married her. But that marriage was not too happy, temperamental Repin constantly had affairs with sitters and ladies of the semi-secular, about which did not judge only lazy. Eventually they separated.
Portrait of Natalia Severova-Nordman
Repin's second great love was Natalia Severova-Nordman. It was with her he lived in Penaty, it was she who contributed to his passion for vegetarianism, which was not ridiculed only by the lazy. But Repin was probably happy with her, because she matched his temperament and shared a passion for painting, music and dance. So Repin really lived a full life, but otherwise he could hardly have painted so many wonderful paintings.
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