Painting Repin "Zaporozhtsy (Cossacks) write a letter to the Turkish sultan"

There is hardly anyone who would not know the famous Ilya Efimovich Repin's painting, telling how the Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish sultan. The picture is familiar to all from childhood. This is one of the most replicable works of classical Russian painting. And one of the tops in the work of the great Russian artist. The thought of creating the painting visited Repin suddenly, when in the circle of friends he got acquainted with the text of this famous letter. Those present say that Repin grabbed a pencil and immediately sketched out a sketch in which the Cossacks gathered in the camp parking wrote a letter to the Turkish sultan Mohammed the Fourth. But to overcome the distance between the instant pencil sketch and the brilliant painting, Ilya Yefimovich had to work hard.

Episode 17th Century History

The event depicted by Repin in the picture of how the Cossacks are writing a letter to the Turkish sultan took place in real history. We see only how the great Russian painter interpreted this scene. Various versions of the historical document, over which the characters of the Repin picture work enthusiastically, can be found and read. They are written very expressively and boldly. This is an open challenge to an obviously stronger enemy who had the imprudent folly of offering freedom-loving people his feudal patronage. Cossacks responded to a powerful monarch so that this insult can only be washed off with blood. People quite understand the price of their joke. About this picture. The letter of the Cossacks to the Turkish sultan will be completed and sent to the addressee. And the Cossacks will go their own way, without waiting for an answer. He is not interested in them. They are free people and do not need the protection of an alien monarch.

About how the picture was created Repin "Zaporozhtsy write a letter to the Turkish sultan"

In order that we could see this became a textbook work, the author had to do a titanic work. The creative method of Repin did not recognize other approaches, except for working with in-kind. He specifically went to Zaporozhye for full-scale sketching. In a complex multi-figure composition of the picture there is not one random element. When we see how the Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish sultan, then one does not even immediately realize the simple fact that we have, among other things, portraits of concrete people, Repin's contemporaries. The artist gave a lot of time and effort to find suitable sitters. All ethnographic elements of clothing and everyday life are written off from real historical costumes and museum exhibits. Many of Repin's contemporaries, who watched the process of creating this painting, were dissatisfied with its completion. They believe that the author spoiled a lot when he put in action the hero standing with his back on the right side of the composition. His wide gray caftan covered many bright figures in this part of the canvas. But such was the decision of the artist, with this gray stain he decided to balance the overall composition. This was completed more than a decade of work on the masterpiece. Later it was purchased by Emperor Alexander the Third.