Аннотация: Ilya Repin. Barge Haulers on the Volga. A note on some my reflections while reading the book "Repin" (the author of book - Igor Grabar).
Ilya Repin. Barge Haulers on the Volga. A note on some my reflections while reading the book "Repin" (the author of book - Igor Grabar).
While reading the biography of Modest Mussorgsky, I drew attention to the mention of the name of Ilya Repin.
Then, while presenting my impressions of the recent event (in St. Isaac's Cathedral), I once again looked at the paintings of Ilya Repin, and, in addition, I read his short biography in one of the electronic encyclopedias.
I was interested in the details of Ilya Repin's origin, and I found several of his biographies in electronic libraries.
It seemed to me, that the most extensive biography was from Igor Grabar.
It's an interesting book. (Igor Grabar. Repin. Volume I).
Let's take just a few biographical aspects: luckness and hard work.
When getting acquainted with the book by Igor Grabar, the reader may come to the conviction that Ilya Repin was a very successful person, a man with luckness, a lucky figure.
Many people he met on his life path helped him with advice, friendship, money, with a useful communication.
One of the episodes caught my attention.
'He recalls how he, who had no desire for any picnics and trips out of town, was caught somehow by his studio neighbor, volunteer K. A. Savitsky, later a well-known Peredvizhnik [member of group "The Wanderers" - "The Itinerant artists"], a fan to go to make country sketches. Slapping Repin on the shoulder, Savitsky, without further talks, announced to him that the next morning they were going up the Neva together on a steamer to Ust-Izhora. No matter how Repin tried to refuse and to excuse himself, he did not succeed, and the next day they were already traveling on a steamer.
'The weather was wonderful,' says Repin. - ... Well, thanks to Savitsky, without him I would never have seen this ...
- However, what is it a moving here? - I ask Savitsky. - That dark, greasy, brownish spot that is creeping into our sun?
- A! it is the barge haulers [barge hauler-burlak бурлак - a man of physical labor, who pulled a barge as part of a group of men, using only personal physical strength]. They are pulling the barge; bravo, what types! You will see, now they will come closer, it is worth taking a look....
I liked Savitsky because he looked like a student and he always reasoned reasonably.
- And you would have watched how they pull the rope on the upper Volga and along the entire system of canals, - he said. - That, indeed, is really outlandish. There, every creature is coupled in pairs ... ".
And from that day on, Repin could never, neither in the workshop, nor among the young ladies and games, get rid of the group of barge haulers [burlaks] who pursued him like an obsessive vision. He sketched out whole groups, then individuals. " [unofficial translation]
From this fragment of Igor Grabar's book, a reader receives information that the biographer, Grabar, practically does not emphasize in his book.
It turns out that Ilya Repin did not like a joint, friendly, buddy rest.
What deels was he busy with?
He was constantly studying, he was constantly working. In general, in the biographies of prominent people, sometimes there is such a feature - non-participation in a joint friendly, buddy rest, pastime. And in one of the Western books on the rules for achieving success, I met such advice, a recommendation: to avoid spending time with colleagues outside of official duties.
Ilya Repin was a person with a friendly manner of behavior.
A little later, in May 1870, Ilya Repin, in accordance with Savitsky's advice, along with several companions, went on a journey along the Volga. On the journey, he worked hard again.
Ilya Repin's work "Barge Haulers on the Volga" made a huge impact among the cultural people of Russia ...
How to interpret this painting, how to explain its meaning?
It is not effective plan to make an attempt to explain the meaning of the painting "Barge Haulers on the Volga" in a short note.
However, taking this opportunity, I will give an example from my personal biography.
I once parted with one of my jobs.
It was during this period that a telephone conversation took place.
My interlocutor began our telephone conversation with the question: "Where do you work now?"
I don't know what and how I would answer him if I thought about the answer. But somehow, involuntarily, the words escaped me: "Burlak [Barge Hauler] on the Volga."
(Of course, at that period of my life I did not think about Repin, I did not look at his paintings, I did not read his biographies, although after studying in secondary school I was familiar with this painting by Ilya Repin).
The interlocutor laughed out of confusion in connection with my resourcefulness, in connection with such a sense of humor of a man who had become unemployed just at the time of the telephone conversation.
Many years have passed since then.
And I'm trying to look at the painting by Ilya Repin "Aleksander III receiving rural district elders in the yard of Petrovsky Palace in Moscow."
This painting took so long to load that I managed to read that very one - a short biography of Ilya Repin from the electronic encyclopedia, which I mentioned above in this note.
While reading this short biography I reached the painting "Barge Haulers on the Volga".
'According to the German art historian Norbert Wolff, the painting' Barge Haulers on the Volga 'made a sensation in the international art community ... Each of the heroes of the canvas bears the stamp of individuality; at the same time, the whole group of characters, placed in the "existential and primordial" landscape, resembles the procession of the damned from the "Divine Comedy". " [unofficial translation] [Russian-language encyclopedia]
I enjoyed it...
The time has come - now laughed I.
After "Barge Haulers" ["Burlaks"] there was also information about Repin's self-portraits. There, for example, it was reported: 'At the age of nineteen, Repin created another self-portrait ... ... in the face of a young man ..., a gamut of feelings was read -' impulse, anxiety and at the same time alertness. Life ahead, what and how all it will be? " [unofficial translation]
Yes, and I, having left my job, my place of work, at that period of my life thought: "Life is ahead, what and how all it will be?"
In general, I remembered up my telephone conversation, and just then the painting "Aleksander III receiving rural district elders in the yard of Petrovsky Palace in Moscow" was finally loaded ... Then I looked at other paintings by Repin ...
The reading of a brief biography and viewing Repin's paintings ended with my laughter and my good mood.
And a little later, I began to read an extensive biography of Ilya Repin from Igor Grabar and learned that Repin 'had no desire for any picnics and trips out of town' ...
October 8, 2021 10:53
Translation from Russian into English: October 8, 2021 12:58.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Илья Репин. Бурлаки на Волге. Заметка о некоторых размышлениях при чтении книги Игоря Грабаря 'Репин''.
{ 2442. Илья Репин. Бурлаки на Волге. Заметка о некоторых размышлениях при чтении книги Игоря Грабаря 'Репин'.
MMСCCСXII. Ilya Repin. Barge Haulers on the Volga. A note on some my reflections while reading the book "Repin" (the author of book - Igor Grabar). (English). }