Голова крестьянина

1863–1871 · Education

Imperial Academy of Arts

1863–1871

Kramskoi — mentor — and the artists’ artel

Repin regarded Ivan Kramskoi as his direct mentor: he was at home in the artists’ artel Kramskoi founded, showed him his student sketches and listened to his advice. After Kramskoi’s death he wrote recollections in which he called him his teacher.

1863–1871

Friends at the Academy: Vasily Polenov and Mark Antokolsky

During eight years at the Academy Repin made many friends: at Vasily Polenov’s home he was always warmly received, and with the sculptor Mark Antokolsky, who had come from Vilna, he grew close in the way, Antokolsky later wrote, that only lonely people in a strange land can.

1869

Znakomstvo s Vladimirom Stasovym

Художественный критик на многие годы вошёл в «ближний круг» Репина.

summer 1870

Poyezdka na Volgu

С братом и художниками Фёдором Васильевым и Евгением Макаровым — этюды и типажи для «Бурлаков»; там встретил бурлака Канина, героя первой тройки.

1871

Pokhorovshchikov’s commission: a painting of composers

When Repin won the first gold medal and the right to a six-year trip abroad, word of him reached Moscow too: Alexander Pokhorovshchikov, owner of the Slavyansky Bazaar hotel, asked him to paint “A Gathering of Russian, Polish and Czech Composers” for 1,500 rubles — Konstantin Makovsky, approached earlier, had asked for 25,000. To Repin, long accustomed to want, the sum seemed enormous; Stasov gathered materials in the Public Library, and Nikolai Rubinstein, Eduard Nápravník, Mily Balakirev and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov sat for the picture.