After ILIA REPIN (Ukraine, 1844-Russia, 1930), late 19th century.
"Cossack Zaporozhsky writing a letter to Sultan Mehmed IV of Turkey".
Oil on canvas.
Signed "J. Navarro" in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 78 x 129 cm; 86 x 137 cm (frame).
Choral scene based on the famous painting of the same name that the Ukrainian painter Ilya Repin painted between 1880 and 1891. It is a faithful copy of the original, in the recreation of each of the characters depicted. Repin's work was acquired by Tsar Alexander III. Since then, it has been on display in the Russian State Museum of Alexander III in St Petersburg. The composition, populated by numerous characters, depicts a legendary scene from Ukrainian history, set in 1676. As the story goes, the Cossacks of Zaporozhia sent a letter to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire after defeating the Ottoman imperial army in battle. Led by Ivan Sirko, they replied to the Ottoman request for surrender with a letter full of insults. The truth of the legend seems to be confirmed by the discovery of the alleged letter in 1870 by an ethnographer from Yekaterinoslav, who gave it to the historian Dmytro Yavornytsky, a friend of the painter Ilya Repin. Repin became interested in the legend and in 1880 began to draw the first sketch of the painting. The painting shows the Cossacks laughing at the Sultan's ultimatum, and reading and sharing the string of obscenities that constituted the reply. Repin expresses sympathy for the irreverence of these feisty characters, for their free and rebellious spirit.
Ilia Repin was a prominent Russian painter and sculptor of Ukrainian origin who belonged to the Itinerant art movement. His realist works often contain great psychological depth and reveal the tensions of the existing social order. In the late 1920s detailed bibliographical works on his work began to be published in the USSR, and about ten years later he was held up as an example to be imitated by the artists of socialist realism.