Rebin
In the early winter of 2021, the Fondation Louis Vuitton launched the famous painting exhibition of the Morozov Brothers Collection in Paris, from October 5, 2021 to January 23, 2022, showing a large number of treasures of modern art icons such as Manet, Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Gauguin, Matisse and Picasso that the two collectors painstakingly collected in a quarterly period. However, in the bright stars, the author was long attracted by the Russian painter Ilya Repin held at the Petit Palace Museum in Paris, recalling that decades ago, before the French Impressionists, the first to catch the eyes of a Chinese teenager was his paintings.
Exhibition room for Repin's paintings at the Petit Palace in Paris
Now, breaking through the ground of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, "The Volga Hauler" lands on the banks of the Seine, with the first retrospective exhibition of Repin's works in Paris, "The First Canvas", which suddenly shows the typical Russian soul. A total of 100 paintings by Repin are on display at this exhibition. The one that shook the audience the most was when he pushed Les Haleurs de la Volga .com. The painting was created between 1870 and 1873 and is now in the State Museum of Russia. Before this, the painter had been trying to persuade people to be kind with colored brushes, but after being reminded by friends that persuasion may not have good results, he turned to reflecting the pain in the depths of the Russian soul. Based on Barakilev's 1860 folk song "Volga Boatman's Song" compiled by Barakileev on the Volga River, he painted a large oil painting of the same name, "The Porter of the Volga River". To create this work, Repin traveled the Volga river with his brother Vasily and two other painter friends from May to August 1870 to observe the bitterness of the coolies on the banks of the river. He was invited by Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, son of Tsar Alexander II, to paint the painting. Unexpectedly, after the completion of the work, it was handed over to the "temple" of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, but it was violently criticized for its strong realism and popularity, which immediately put the painter in trouble. However, the painter's trackers had different expressions, distinct personalities, and superb artistic attainments, and finally won the gold medal at the 1873 Vienna International Exposition, echoing the Volga Boatman's Song by the bass singer Chariabing, which resonated with a passionate cry.
The Volga Hauler
In the exhibition hall of the Petit Palace, Repin's other famous painting "The Reply of the Zaporos to the Sultan of Turkey" also attracted a large audience. It shows a group of Champolosh people writing a reply to the Ottoman Sultan Muhammad on the ruins of the smoke that had not yet dissipated, refusing to serve the foreign tyrant. The Cossacks were awe-struck by righteousness and reverberated through the wilderness with great vigour. Repin began writing in 1878 and lasted 12 years, during which time he went to Ukraine in 1880 to experience life. In 1887, the painter met the historian Demitro Yavolnitsky, who provided him with a large amount of relevant historical materials that nourished his creative inspiration. This masterpiece was acquired by Tsar Alexander III of Russia in 1891 and won a grand prize at the 1893 Chicago International Exposition, which made it famous in the world of painting.
Between 1926 and 1930, Repin painted the Gopak Dance, depicting the rapidly paced songs and dances of the Champoros, breathing fresh air into Russian folk traditions and dazzlingly viewing them. The oil painting Satkow in the Kingdom under the Sea, presented to this exhibition by St. Petersburg, was completed by Repin over a three-year period from 1873, based on a legend of Russian poetry. The painting depicts a wealthy Novogorod merchant who falls into the world of the Sea Dragon King. The Dragon King asked him to choose a bride among the beauties of the Fairy Realm, but the fiancée chosen by the rich merchant was a Russian girl, revealing Repin's strong and deep Russian complex. In fact, the painter himself was not very satisfied with the work, but he was awarded the title of academician of the Russian Academy of Fine Arts.
Perhaps it touched the author's own experience, and the scene of Repin's "The Man Who Returned Unexpectedly" is particularly prominent. An aristocratic intellectual, who had been exiled by the Tsarist regime for many years, suddenly returned one day and appeared in front of his wife, who was at a loss for words, and the two sons and daughters suddenly saw this ragged and faltering stranger, unaware that this was their biological father. Hanging on the living room wall are portraits of Shevchenko and Nekrasov and Charlie Steben's famous painting "The Passion of the Christ", reminiscent of the arduous journey of this "return from a stormy night".
《October 17, 1905》
Another painting, entitled "October 17, 1905," depicts a scene of a Russian revolution in 1905 when the people resisted the riots, and the author explicitly states: "Here is the liberation of Russian society." The teachers, students, and workers in the painting shake the red flag and sing, holding up a "pardoned one" and cheering him for his final freedom. This desire for freedom was made in 1903 by the painter on the shores of Dutch Bay. has been revealed. It was a pair of young men and women dancing the mazurka dance in the waves, just like a song of youth, which became more and more enthusiastic in the revolutionary trend of 1905. This phenomenon shows that although Repin also painted portraits of dignitaries such as Tsar Nicholas II and Baroness Valvara, he always sympathized with the vast number of poor people in Russia and supported the revolutionaries against the tyrant.
The organizers of the Petit Palace exhibition noted: "Repin was born into a serf family and witnessed the shocking changes in russia in his time, especially in the depths of social history, reflected in works for freedom, beyond borders." Looking at his paintings, you can learn about the turbulent history of Russia and go deep into the soul of Russians. ”
Repin is a recognized master of portraiture, particularly adept at handling light and color. From 1860 onwards he painted a large number of portraits, totaling about 300. The object of the painting is first of all one's own family members. He paints his wife Vera and her children, expressing the innocence and liveliness of life in the form of her daughter Nadya and her son Yuri playing or sleeping on a pillow. Yuri grew up to become a painter as well. Repin painted portraits of his contemporaries, most notably by The female disciple of Liszt who toured Russia for free, the German pianist Sophie Mante (1846-1918) and the "Red Baroness" at the Tsar's court, Valvara (1850-1928), who translated Dostoevsky's works into French. The latter is glamorous, and Repin's portrait of her, dressed in a Garibaldi red corset, looks like a beautiful woman. Looking at Repin's numerous portraits, in addition to the national tradition and local atmosphere of "Ukrainian Woman" and his portrait of his second daughter "In the Sun" painted after returning from the Paris International Exposition in 1900, the most shocking is "Ivan the Terrible". Tsar Ivan IV, who professed his divine right to the throne, ascended the throne as "Tsar". He had a violent temper, and in 1581 he slammed his eldest son in the head one day in anger, causing the other party's skull to rupture and bleed continuously, dying. At this point, Ivan the Terrible regretted it. Repin depicts the sadness and despair on his face, foreshadowing that the "first modern monarch of Russia" before the Romanov family was then insane and could not die well. The work was once censored by Tsar Alexander III for being considered "inflammatory". It was violently attacked in 1913 while exhibiting at the Tresylaf Gallery in Moscow, and was destroyed in 1918 and is still under restoration, so it was not able to participate in the exhibition in Paris.
In particular, Repin greatly admired the musician Mussorgsky. Knowing that the other party was seriously ill, he rushed to visit a military hospital in St. Petersburg and painted a rare portrait of him with disheveled hair, which will be passed on to future generations. A few days after Repin left, Mussorgsky died at the age of 42. Repin joined the "Travelling Exhibition School" in 1878 with the aim of describing the lives of the people, and he also painted portraits of Borodin, the author of Prince Igor, and The Prisoner of the Caucasus, Guy, of Mussorgsky's New Russian orchestra, who belonged to the Same Neo-Russian music school.
"Lev Tolstoy's Ploughing Land"
Repin once maintained a fairly close relationship with the writer Tolstoy. In 1880, the two met at Repin's painting workshop, and after that, Repin continued to visit Tolstoy's residence in Moscow. He painted or sculpted no less than 70 portraits of Towon in succession, the most famous of which was the 1887 oil painting Leo Tolstoy's Cultivated Land. Tolstoy was the least willing to be a model, and his view of art was not very different from repin's, but out of friendship, he agreed with the painter to observe his daily activities and depict his life. Tolstoy hated the luxury of the nobility and wanted to get close to the poor peasants and experience the natural simplicity of the countryside. He ploughed the land on two white horses, which aroused The great interest of Repin. According to Tolstoy's daughter Alexandra, when Tolstoy was ploughing, Repin ran around in the field, drew one sketch after another, and then combined it into "Toon Farming Map", which was translated into prints and photographs for the public to understand the intention of the aristocratic writer who had thought about the life of "Mujik".
Repin's hundred paintings were exhibited in Paris, and the organizers of the event naturally mentioned that the Russian painter had been associated with the European literary capital "City of Light". Repin did travel to Paris in 1873 for three years. He lived with his family on the Montmartre Heights and lived off by painting portraits of people. Despite the ban from St. Petersburg, Repin exhibited his work in France between 1875 and 1876. Infected by the early Impressionists, he went to Normandy to sketch in the wild, and interacted with the landscape painter Alexei Boglyubov and others to broaden his creative horizons. Judging by artistic style, if you compare him to Courbet in Russia, it is better to say that he is closer to Daru. However, unlike the former two, he did not participate in the practice of social revolution. While in France, he became acquainted with Turgenev and a group of Russian exiles, was deeply touched by Tu's novels such as "Father and Son" and "Virgin Land", and had a premonition of the future changes in Russian society. Look, on the portrait he painted for Nicholas II in the Winter Palace in 1896, the sunlight does not shine on the Tsar's throne, and the natural meaning is deep.
In 1899, Repin bought a plot of land in Finland, annexed by Tsarist Russia, just thirty kilometers from St. Petersburg. Over there, surrounded by a large lake, he built a painting workshop, eventually returning to religious subjects and painting Jesus crucified. Four years later, he settled there, and between 1927 and 1929 he and his new partner, as well as the female photographer Natalia Norman, received friends from afar, including Gorky and Leonid Andreev, who was inspired by Gorky to engage in literature. Unlike Gorky, Repin did not return to his beloved homeland like the Russian literary magnates. In his later years, he remained in Finland and became an exile, exhibiting works in Helsinki from time to time, struggling to survive in solitude, and died in a foreign country on 29 September 1930 at the age of 86.
Today, fourteen exhibition rooms have been set aside at the Petit Palace in Paris, presenting Repin's arduous and colorful painting career. The exhibition highlights Repin's talent for portraiture, his deep insight into Russian nature and society, and the painter's correspondence with the literary hero Tolstoy, as well as several musical image films of composers who interact with the deceased, allowing French audiences to understand Russian history, customs, spiritual and cultural life and ideology from many perspectives, especially the soul and character characteristics of Russians.
Repin published his Art Letters in 1890, which was controversial. He said in his lifetime: "The so-called inspiration is essentially the fruit of hard work." This phrase, which is regarded as an "epitaph", seems to serve as a portrayal of the life of the great Russian realist painter.