Repin Ilya Efimovich 
(24.07(05.08).1844–29.09.1930)

An outstanding Russian artist, master of portraits, historical and everyday scenes. 
Born in Chuguev Kharkiv Governorate, the family of a military settler. Initially, literacy and arithmetic learned from the sexton and deacon. At the age of 11, he studied at a topographic school for some time, but it closed due to the abolition of military settlements. From the age of 13 he studied painting in Chuguev under I. Bunakov. 
In 1863  Repin entered the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. Here he met with I.N. Kramskoy, who became his chief mentor. For his thesis, the painting "Jov and His Friends" in 1869 was awarded a small gold medal. 
In 1870  Repin made a creative journey along the Volga, where he wrote a number of sketches and sketches; the apotheosis of this journey was one of his famous paintings "Barge Haulers on the Volga", which he graduated in 1873. 
One of the first paintings by Repin, which received wide recognition, was a large group portrait of Slavic composers, commissioned by businessman A.A. Porokhovshchikov. In 1872  he received the Grand Gold Medal and the right to 6 years of study in Italy and France for the program work “Resurrection of the Daughter of Jairus”, where he completed an art education. The result of this period were the paintings of the 'Paris Cafe”and “Sadko”. 
Upon returning to Russia in 1876, Repin first settled in his native Chuguev, and a year later he moved to Moscow. In 1878, he began work on the painting "Zaporozhye Cossacks write the answer to the Turkish Sultan". This work lasted more than 10 years and was completed only in 1891. The picture has 3 lists (not counting etudes). The first Repin presented to a friend, historian Dmitry Yavornitsky, and that to Pavel Tretyakov. Most of the models for him are taken from Yekaterinoslav Province (the clerk is Yavornitsky, Ivan Sirko is Kiev Governor General Mikhail Dragomirov, the Cossack wounded in the head is artist Nikolai Kuznetsov; the military judge in a black hat is Vasily Tarnovsky; the young Cossack in a round hat is his son George Alekseev, the owner of a vast bald spot, the leader of the nobility of the Yekaterinoslav province, the chief commander of the court of His Majesty, the honorary citizen of Yekaterinoslav and a passionate numismatist. As he refused to pose from the back of his head, moose go to the trick. Yavornytsky invited him to see his collection, and sneaking behind the seated artist, and as long as the leader admired coins Repin quickly sketched portrait. Alekseev found themselves already in the Tretyakov Gallery and the offense. 
The second version of the painting (1880–91) is kept in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. Who posed for him is unclear. The third option (1893) - in the Kharkov Art Museum. It is inferior in size to the original. 
In 1882   Repin moved to St. Petersburg, where he became an active participant in the "Association of the Wanderers", whom he joined in 1874, and in fact one of the leaders of the Russian realistic school of painting. At the exhibitions of the partnership, his paintings “The Regent Sofya Alekseevna in the Monastery”, “The Religious Procession in the Kursk Province”, “Not Awaited”, “Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan” appeared consistently. During this period, he also distinguished himself as an outstanding portrait painter, creating portraits of Franz Liszt and Mikhail Glinka P.A. Strepetova, N.I. Pirogov, P.M. Tretyakov, I.N. Kramskoy, I.S. Turgeneva, V.M.Garshina, V. V. Samoilova, M.S. Shchepkina, Baroness Ikskul and many others. 
In 1893, Repin became a full member of the Petersburg Academy of Arts, in 1894–1907. he is a professor-head of the workshop, and in 1898–9999. served as rector.

In 1901  by order of the government  Repin set about creating a grand canvas, dedicated to the ceremonial meeting of the State Council on the day of its centenary. It depicts more than eighty people - dignitaries of the State Council, headed by the king and members of the royal house. The work, which was attended by BM. Kustodiev and I.S. Kulikov, was completed in two years. 
In 1899  Repin again married and bought land in the name of his wife in the village of Kuokkala in Finland, on which he built a manor and called it “Penates”. There he spent the last thirty years of his life. The village of Kuokkala (now Repino) after the October Revolution was abroad as part of independent Finland. 
Repin was very fond of this country, calling Helsingfors a piece of Paris. He was acquainted with many figures of Finnish culture. In 1919, Repin donated to the Society of Finnish Artists his collection of 23 works by Russian artists and seven of his own, from which the Repin Athenaeum collection began. In 1920, Finnish artists chose him as an honorary member of the Society of Artists of Finland. 
Repin is also known as an excellent memoirist, the author of a number of essays that made up the Distant Close Book of Memories. He paid much attention to pedagogical work: among his students B.М. Kustodiev, I.E. Grabar, I.S. Kulikov, F.A. Malyavin, A.P. Ostroumov-Lebedev, he gave private lessons to V.A. Serovu. 
Repin negatively treated the royal ranks, however, after the revolution he refused to return to the USSR. In private letters he argued that while the Bolsheviks were in power, he did not want to have anything in common with Russia. The artist’s canvases that have never been exhibited in the USSR, for example, “Bolsheviks (Red Army soldier taking bread from a child)”, are a kind of response to emissaries from the country of the Soviets - a picture clearly explaining Repin’s attitude to Soviet power. In recent years  Repin has created a number of paintings on religious themes. 
After Repin's death in the 1930s  his real cult began in the USSR. The artist's works were called samples of socialist realism, the name of Repin was on a par with the names of Tolstoy, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. 
He died Kuokkala, where he was buried in his favorite garden near the house. 
Cape in the south Yermolov Bay on the Kara coast of the northern island of New Earth. The name was given in 1901-1902  Novaya Zemlya expedition of artist A.A. Borisov.