Sharjah: Aladdin Mahmoud
The artworks of the Russian painter Ilya Repin (1844-1930) monitor the daily reality of peasants and workers, the struggle and suffering of people, and he is considered the most prominent and famous painter of the Russian realist movement in the nineteenth century, as his works belong to what was known as the school of “social realism”, and he is famous for his creative ability The high level, the power of observation, and the ability to embody the features and emotions of people, as he was able in his paintings to surround the life of the Russian people with all the depth and delicacy of sense, and in addition to drawing he mastered sculpture, graphics, writing and teaching, and thanks to his belonging to the realist trend, Repin was able to embody Russian life in various types of drawing, especially the art of Portraiture, and he is considered one of the most important artists of the “wanderers” movement.
Repin was born in Chuguev, in the Russian Empire’s Kharkiv, in the heart of Ukraine. His father was a soldier in the Uhlan Regiment of the Imperial Russian Army. Repin was educated at the local school and entered the Canton Military School in 1854. He has no substantive memories of his childhood; This is mainly due to the military settlements in which his family lived. Repin moved to St. Petersburg to join the Academy of Arts to study with the best painters at the time. During his travels to France and Italy, he learned regarding Western European art to master outdoor painting. After his return to Russia, he dealt with the topic of diversity of life. The Russian people interacted with the events of his time with vitality, and in the eighties of the 19th century he cared a lot regarding the subject of the revolutionary movement, and among his most famous paintings was the painting “Refusal to Recognize”, “An Unexpected Return”, and many works that immortalized among people around the world.
The painting “Sailors on the Volga River”, or “Walkers on the Volga River”, painted by Repin between the years 1870-1873, is considered one of the most famous works of the artist, and it belongs to the trend of social realism, and it is one of the paintings in which the painter deals with the sufferings of people, especially Those who lie at the bottom of the social scale, including peasants, workers, the poor, and the simple, and these are the subjects in which Repin excelled in a genius way that caught the attention of historians, critics, and art practitioners, and his contemporaries commented on his special ability to depict the lives of peasants and simple people in his works, as the Russian painter and critic Ivan Kramskoy, one of The most prominent leader of the “Wanderers” movement wrote a letter to the Russian artist and critic Stasov in 1876, in which he talks regarding Repin’s extraordinary ingenuity in observing the details of the lives of the poor and showing their misery, a message that states in some of them: “Repin is able to portray the Russian peasant exactly as he is, I know many artists who painted peasants, some of them very well, but none of them came close to Repin’s work.” The famous Russian writer Leo Tolstoy also spoke regarding him, saying: “Repin depicts people’s lives much better than any other Russian artist.” Tolstoy praised Repin’s ability to portray human life with impressive and vivid power, and in fact all that ingenuity and creative ability appeared in a large way in this painting “Sailors on the Volga”, which is considered one of the icons of Russian, and even international art, where the artist poured a great creative effort into it. The painting, painted by Repin in oil colors on canvas, depicts eleven poor sailors of different ages pulling a boat with strenuous effort on the banks of the Volga River. As the painting scene focuses on the moment the sailors leave the sea in their torn and dirty clothes, while signs of extreme fatigue appear on their faces, as a result of the tremendous effort they exerted in the process of towing the boat to the shore, and the strong rope that they used in the process of towing that boat was wrapped around their bodies. Where the viewer imagines in the painting as if the tired sailors are regarding to fall to the ground, and the artist excelled in depicting these feelings, as he excelled in distributing the contrasting colors between bright and dark in making a very beautiful scene, where the sea is with its blueness and waves, and the land is covered in shades of yellow It seems that the time in the painting is in the daytime, and this is evident through the reflection of the sun’s rays on the water. The work was considered, by many critics, a cry of condemnation of greed and profit in an inhuman way, as these sailors were employed for this hard and painstaking work, without regard for their rights and humanity, as the painting shows that these men live by selling their labor force for a simple return on which they live. They and their families, and although the scene of the painting depicts these poor people in a position of enduring and accepting their work, it highlights at the same time their defeat and refraction, which is evident through the expression of the faces inhabited by fatigue, and art historians stated that the idea of the painting found its way to Repin’s imagination through His travels across Russia as a young man, filming real-life characters he met.
The painting found an international echo and praise, due to its uniqueness in depicting the reality of working men and their toil, and through it Repin’s artistic career was launched and his fame spread in Russia and abroad, and shortly following the completion of that painting, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, an antiques collector, bought it, which made it displayed to It was widely distributed throughout Europe, and the painting has even been described as perhaps the most famous artwork of the Wanderers movement.
The artworks of the Russian painter Ilya Repin (1844-1930) monitor the daily reality of peasants and workers, the struggle and suffering of people, and he is considered the most prominent and famous painter of the Russian realist movement in the nineteenth century, as his works belong to what was known as the school of “social realism”, and he is famous for his creative ability The high level, the power of observation, and the ability to embody the features and emotions of people, as he was able in his paintings to surround the life of the Russian people with all the depth and delicacy of sense, and in addition to drawing he mastered sculpture, graphics, writing and teaching, and thanks to his belonging to the realist trend, Repin was able to embody Russian life in various types of drawing, especially the art of Portraiture, and he is considered one of the most important artists of the “wanderers” movement.
Repin was born in Chuguev, in the Russian Empire’s Kharkiv, in the heart of Ukraine. His father was a soldier in the Uhlan Regiment of the Imperial Russian Army. Repin was educated at the local school and entered the Canton Military School in 1854. He has no substantive memories of his childhood; This is mainly due to the military settlements in which his family lived. Repin moved to St. Petersburg to join the Academy of Arts to study with the best painters at the time. During his travels to France and Italy, he learned regarding Western European art to master outdoor painting. After his return to Russia, he dealt with the topic of diversity of life. The Russian people interacted with the events of his time with vitality, and in the eighties of the 19th century he cared a lot regarding the subject of the revolutionary movement, and among his most famous paintings was the painting “Refusal to Recognize”, “An Unexpected Return”, and many works that immortalized among people around the world.
The painting “Sailors on the Volga River”, or “Walkers on the Volga River”, painted by Repin between the years 1870-1873, is considered one of the most famous works of the artist, and it belongs to the trend of social realism, and it is one of the paintings in which the painter deals with the sufferings of people, especially Those who lie at the bottom of the social scale, including peasants, workers, the poor, and the simple, and these are the subjects in which Repin excelled in a genius way that caught the attention of historians, critics, and art practitioners, and his contemporaries commented on his special ability to depict the lives of peasants and simple people in his works, as the Russian painter and critic Ivan Kramskoy, one of The most prominent leader of the “Wanderers” movement wrote a letter to the Russian artist and critic Stasov in 1876, in which he talks regarding Repin’s extraordinary ingenuity in observing the details of the lives of the poor and showing their misery, a message that states in some of them: “Repin is able to portray the Russian peasant exactly as he is, I know many artists who painted peasants, some of them very well, but none of them came close to Repin’s work.” The famous Russian writer Leo Tolstoy also spoke regarding him, saying: “Repin depicts people’s lives much better than any other Russian artist.” Tolstoy praised Repin’s ability to portray human life with impressive and vivid power, and in fact all that ingenuity and creative ability appeared in a large way in this painting “Sailors on the Volga”, which is considered one of the icons of Russian, and even international art, where the artist poured a great creative effort into it. The painting, painted by Repin in oil colors on canvas, depicts eleven poor sailors of different ages pulling a boat with strenuous effort on the banks of the Volga River. As the painting scene focuses on the moment the sailors leave the sea in their torn and dirty clothes, while signs of extreme fatigue appear on their faces, as a result of the tremendous effort they exerted in the process of towing the boat to the shore, and the strong rope that they used in the process of towing that boat was wrapped around their bodies. Where the viewer imagines in the painting as if the tired sailors are regarding to fall to the ground, and the artist excelled in depicting these feelings, as he excelled in distributing the contrasting colors between bright and dark in making a very beautiful scene, where the sea is with its blueness and waves, and the land is covered in shades of yellow It seems that the time in the painting is in the daytime, and this is evident through the reflection of the sun’s rays on the water. The work was considered, by many critics, a cry of condemnation of greed and profit in an inhuman way, as these sailors were employed for this hard and painstaking work, without regard for their rights and humanity, as the painting shows that these men live by selling their labor force for a simple return on which they live. They and their families, and although the scene of the painting depicts these poor people in a position of enduring and accepting their work, it highlights at the same time their defeat and refraction, which is evident through the expression of the faces inhabited by fatigue, and art historians stated that the idea of the painting found its way to Repin’s imagination through His travels across Russia as a young man, filming real-life characters he met.
The painting found an international echo and praise, due to its uniqueness in depicting the reality of working men and their toil, and through it Repin’s artistic career was launched and his fame spread in Russia and abroad, and shortly following the completion of that painting, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, an antiques collector, bought it, which made it displayed to It was widely distributed throughout Europe, and the painting has even been described as perhaps the most famous artwork of the Wanderers movement.
