Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin, Ilya Efimovich Repin

Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin, Ilya Efimovich Repin (1884)

Ilya Efimovich Repin

Ilya Yefimovich Repin was a Russian and Ukrainian realist painter. He was the most renowned Ukrainian artist of the 19th century, when his position in the world of art was comparable to that of Leo Tolstoy in literature. He played a major role in bringing Russian art into the mainstream of European culture. The rich tonal contrasts and vibrant brushwork in his art were influenced by the works he encountered while studying in Paris.

In the early 1880s, he met Garshin, a renowned writer who was equally concerned about contemporary political and social issues.
Tragically, four years after this painting was created, Garshin, deeply affected by the suicides of his father and brother, as well as his own struggles with mental illness, took his own life by jumping down a stairwell.