Ilya Repin painted many wonderful portraits of his friends, lovers, acquaintances and Russian celebrities. He had a hot temper, and therefore praised many of his acquaintances to the skies, but at the same time considered himself a callous and selfish person who was completely incapable of making friends. Of course, all this was not so, although many of the heroes of Repin's portraits had extremely contradictory feelings from the artist himself. We will talk about what connected Repin and those from whom he painted his wonderful pictures in this article.
Portrait of V. V. Stasov. 1883
The famous art critic Vladimir Stasov was one of Repin's best friends, and, having communicated with the artist a lot, had a clear idea of his character and relationships with people. "He is very kind, sweet, noble, but at the same time a real slob and extremely fickle: constant sighs and gasps when working on a portrait, and in general in all matters. Why didn't we do this, after a very short time - no, we didn't need to, and then again regrets that he never embodied all his ideas on canvas." But despite all the eccentricities and indecisiveness, Stasov respected and appreciated Repin: "he is the best among the realists, and the first artist of the era."
Surgeon E. V. Pavlov in the operating room
Of all the artistic trends, Stasov valued only realism - both academics and modernists got it from him equally, and it cannot be said that all the criticism was groundless, especially in the context of the tasks of art of that time. Repin sincerely admired Stasov: "he is a giant, a colossus, compared to other scribblers of articles about artists."
Parisian cafe
Their friendship lasted for over 30 years. Stasov and Repin traveled together, constantly corresponded, but often argued, and a couple of times even broke off relations completely. Once, young Repin, living in Italy, harshly criticized Rome and the local art galleries. The letters were private, intended only for Stasov, and the famous critic published them in a magazine, which, in Repin's opinion, made him a laughing stock in front of all of Russia.
Portrait of the critic V. V. Stasov. 1873
Well, the second time, the formal culprit was Repin: he agreed to teach at the Academy of Arts, and Stasov had always disliked the Academy and the order that reigned there for its inertia, anachronism and isolation from real life. And then his closest friend began working in this “hotbed of everything negative in Russian art”. “Repin died for me as an artist,” Stasov wrote. For several years they did not speak, and did not greet each other when they met. And only in 1899, Repin sharply spoke out against modernism and the “World of Art” artists’ association, which once again won Stasov over. “Repin has risen,” Stasov rejoiced.
Sadko
In 1888, a real beauty came to Repin's studio: tall, slender, with a pretty face. She introduced herself as Elizaveta Zvantseva, and dreamed of becoming an artist. At 24, Zvantseva was already studying at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture, but she wanted to study with "the best artist in Russia," whom she considered Repin.
Portrait of E. N. Zvantseva
Repin agreed, but there were few full-fledged lessons: the aspiring artist became embarrassed at the sight of Repin, blushed and was afraid to be alone with him. Soon she began to avoid lessons altogether, inventing some completely ridiculous reasons. And it was all because of Repin himself. The 44-year-old artist immediately and hopelessly fell in love with his lovely student, and Zvantseva, of course, guessed his feelings perfectly. And Repin did not know how to break them at all and wrote her enthusiastic, chaotic and passionate letters, where he confessed his love. But Zvantseva offered Repin only "friendship or separation." Repin was not at all satisfied with friendship. "Separation is better, although you broke my heart," he replied. Only after several years did the passion subside, leaving serious emotional wounds.
Portrait of Princess M. K. Tenisheva
Repin sought solace from Princess Maria Tenisheva. He portrayed the famous patroness and musician over 6 times in various portraits. Working and communicating with her, Repin tried to forget Zvantseva, and therefore forced Tenisheva to pose to exhaustion, trying to get closer to the unattainable ideal. Finally, he bored his high-ranking model so much that she wrote dismissively: "I'm terribly tired of posing. He has already painted six portraits, all unsuccessful and each time worse. I am irritated by his insincerity and desire to curry favor with a profitable order. I will now make a goddess and Juno out of you, so you sit and hope for a miracle, and in the end, instead of a goddess, you get some kind of caricature."
Portrait of M. K. Tenisheva. 1896
However, it must be said in fairness that Tenisheva was openly jealous of Repin for his "ugly friend" Natalia Nordman and expressed all her dissatisfaction in her memoirs, not daring to say everything she thought and felt directly. Repin was still sincerely grateful to her for introducing him to Nordman, for their friendship, and for lucrative orders. Although when he first saw Nordman and talked to her, he insistently asked the princess "never to bring this one again." But in the end he married "this one."
Self-portrait with Natalia Nordman. 1903
In 1913, Repin was inspired to paint a portrait of Feodor Chaliapin. He had this peculiarity: if he decided to paint someone's portrait, he would completely forget about any shortcomings of his model and see only the advantages, often exaggerated or invented by the artist himself. In 1914, Chaliapin was resting from his righteous labors in a sanatorium not far from Repin's Penates, and the artist sent him an invitation telegram. The singer stayed at Penates for two whole weeks. In between posing, he skied and shoveled snow, not so much out of absolute necessity as out of a desire to give himself physical exercise. While posing, he sat sprawled on the couch, and Repin first depicted his face, and only then outlined the body, hoping to finish the painting himself.
Repin paints Chaliapin. 1914.
But something went wrong, the longer he worked on it, the worse it became: the composition turned out to be contrived and forced, the pose unnatural, and the resemblance to the famous singer was increasingly lost. As a result, Repin abandoned the painting.
Portrait of Alice Rivoire with a dog. 1914
But it would be a shame to waste it. At 72, he fell madly in love with a young Frenchwoman, Alice Rivoire, who taught him French: he had this fantasy in his old age. In 2009, this painting was illuminated with infrared light, and it turned out that the Frenchwoman originally had the face of Chaliapin. Only the bulldog remained from the portrait of the singer - Repin did not paint over it, but everything else was radically reworked.
Became famous for creating nude paintings. Italian artist Francesco Hayez and his sensual works.
Funny and immodest cartoons by Igor Makarov about autumn and family life
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