Chuguevo, Kharkov Province 1844-1930 Kuokkala, Finland (now Repino, Leningrad' Oblast)

Ilya Efimovich Repin ranks as the most prominent figure of nineteenth-century Russian realism. Son of a simple military settler (a peasant), Repin was naturally endowed with an uncommonly strong artistic talent. He studied at the Petersburg Academy of Arts from 1864 to 1871. While a student, Repin became friends with I. N. Kramskoi, who exerted a particularly powerful influence both on the young artist and on his fellow artists in Petersburg. On a scholarship from the Academy, Repin lived and worked in Paris from 1873 to 1876, at which time he became a member of the Academy. In 1877 he returned to his birthplace in Chuguevo, moved to Moscow the next year; and then lived in Petersburg from 1882 on. From 1878 to 1882 Repin, along with V.M. Vasnetsov and V. D. Polenov, comprised the nucleus of S.I. Mamontov's Abramtsevo Art Circle. Beginning in 1878 as well, Repin was a member of the Itinerants and a constant participant in their exhibitions. He served as a professor and as head of the studio affiliated with the Petersburg Academy of Arts (1894-1907) and as director of the Academy in 1898-1899. At about this same time, Repin taught at the studio-school of the Princess M. K. Tenisheva.

A painter of landscapes, genre scenes, and portraits, Repin often depicted themes from history in his works, especially in his landscapes. He was also an accomplished master of drawing, and he produced several lithographs. In 1900 Repin took as his permanent residence the estate Penaty in Kuokkala, a village in the vicinity of Petersburg. This estate soon became an established center of Russian artistic and literary activity in the early twentieth century.