Ilya Repin

Full Name: Ilya Yefimovich Repin
Profession: 19th Century Painter and Artist

Biography: Ilya Repin was a Ukrainian-born Russian painter, one of the best known artists in nineteenth-century Russia. He is known especially for works like Barge Haulers on the Volga (1873) and Religious Procession in Kursk Province (1880-1883).

The painting Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan (1885) is based on the incident in which Ivan the Terrible killed his son Ivan in a fit of rage. Repin's painting depicts the father holding his son, eyes staring blankly with an immensity of grief. This painting caused a scandal and was removed from exhibition, it has since been attacked and damaged twice.

His Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (1880-1891) is based on a story of a letter written in response to Sultan Mehmed IV by the Zaporozhian Cossacks. The Cossacks had won a battle against the Ottoman forces, despite which the sultan demanded their submission. The painting is meant to be based on this supposedly historical scene.

A group of Cossacks are seen in the painting to be engaged in coming up with a ludicrous response, modeled on the verbosity of the Ottomon original, part of which mocked the sultan's various honorifics by referring to him as "swineherd of greater and lesser Egypt" and "the Turkish biter of men."

Born: July 24, 1844
Birthplace: Chuguev, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire
Star Sign: Leo

Died: September 29, 1930 (aged 86)