Ilya Repin: Capturing the Soul of Russia on Canvas

The text below is the excerpt of the book Ilya Repin (ISBN: 9781783101856), written by Grigori Sternin and Jelena Kirillina, published by Parkstone International.

A characteristic feature of Repin’s talent – the persistent search for new approaches to technique and content that would give his work fullness and depth – can also be seen in those early works of a totally different kind, which were directly inspired by real life. The Barge Haulers, on which Ilya Repin worked for a long time, is a very clear example.

Unless you chance to be familiar with the Russian art of the day, it is difficult to grasp the distance which separates the Barge Haulers on the Volga from that which came before. At one stroke the clear-eyed Cossack placed himself at the head of the new movement. He went direct to nature and character, not to the arid formalism of academic tradition. The general effect of the canvas is compelling in its sheer veracity of observation and statement. The composition is effective, the various types are accurately individualised, and about these sun-scorched bargemen, who sullenly pull on the same sagging tow-line, radiates the genuine light of the outdoors, not the bitumen and brown sauce of the galleries. While it is impossible to overlook the fact that the Barge Haulers on the Volga is what the Teutons call a Tendenzbild – a picture with a purpose – it cannot be said that the didactic or humanitarian elements outdo the pictorial appeal. Imbued with a certain deep-rooted pity for the downtrodden, the painting stands upon its own merits as a resolute example of realism. The artist’s triumph was in fact complete and his fame as sudden and widespread as that of the young officer who, years before, had penned with searching verity The Cossacks and Sevastopol Sketches.

Barge Haulers on the Volga (1870-1873) was the first picture Ilya Repin completed after leaving the Academy of Arts. It was immediately acclaimed by contemporaries, including Fiodor Dostoyevsky and the critic Vladimir Stasov. This work is an early, but vivid expression of one of the most valuable qualities found in the creative work of the Russian intelligentsia – a feeling of personal responsibility for the hard lot of the common people and the historical destiny of the country. It was this position as both artist and concerned citizen which gave Repin’s work its distinctive character: it found expression in his monumental canvases, in his more modest studies and sketches, and even in his trial jottings.

Incidentally, bearing in mind this aspect of Repin, it is more appropriate to speak not of the single final version of the painting, but of the whole series of works in oil and in pencil. Ilya Repin worked on this canvas for several years during which he travelled more than once to the Volga, studying the people who had come there from all corners of Russia to earn a hard living as barge haulers. The young artist would spend many hours closely observing them at their daily toil. But he was also attracted by secondary motifs which had a romantic overtone, such as the raft men’s courageous battle with the elemental force of the river.

The sketches and studies for Barge Haulers reveal an interesting peculiarity which was to become characteristic of Repin’s method of working on a painting. Sometimes his basic idea sprang from his first impression of something seen in real life (as was the case with Barge Haulers). On other occasions the basic theme was the outcome of reflections on Russia’s history or the social and religious destiny of the individual. Between the “idea” and the “soil” – that is how one might describe the mental and spiritual sphere in which all Repin’s most significant concepts arose. In either case, however, given the logic of the development of the subject, on the one hand, and the logic of the human characters, on the other, the two elements which determined the basic idea of his picture often compelled him to produce several versions of one painting, making changes in both content and technique. In Barge Haulers, which was completed at the juncture of two decades in Russian painting that differed greatly with regard to social and aesthetic ideas, this distinctive aspect of Repin’s creative method is expressed with the assertive directness of youth.

The final version of the picture is far removed from the original concept. A simple feeling of sympathy for the barge haulers developed into a picture which anticipated essential features of Russian realism in the 1870s and ‘80s. The effect of hard physical labour seems to emphasise rather than obliterate the individuality of the barge haulers. The leader of the group, Kanin, has the dignity of an ancient philosopher sold into slavery, and his bearing illustrates the extent to which the artist respected the inner world of these men and reflects his belief that the spiritual strength of man cannot be broken even by heavy toil. It was no accident that Ilya Repin, after trying out many different versions of the same motif – the slow, staggering movement of a group of people – finally struck on an arrangement in which the barge haulers tramping the sandy bank appear to dominate the boundless expanse of the Volga. The artist achieved the effect through compositional means that are still rather overly direct, but his aim is clear, and it was that aim which placed Ilya Repin among those who were exploring new ways of portraying ordinary people.

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