The artist is Repin
The picture is among the most outstanding works of Russian painting. She began a new era in the history of Russian art. The artist set his goal to create a monumental canvas dedicated to the life of the people and not only revealing the severity of their share, but also a spiritual force singing him.
Back in his student years, Repin began to work on the picture. In 1868, he first saw the Burlakov on the Neva and was amazed at the sight of the ragged people harnessed into the strap, especially in contrast with the walking public.
In May 1870, Repin in the company of his brother Vasily, as well as artists Fyodor Vasiliev and Evgeny Makarov, made the first journey to the Volga, where the first sketches and sketches were made.
After two trips to the Volga, getting close to the barlars closely, Repin turned to the statement of a new hero, whom Russian painting did not know.
A group of people on a hot summer day against the background of a wide Volga landscape, highlighted sand, water and heaven looks like a heavy sculptural frieze. The group represents a single whole and at the same time consists of three separate parts. In the vanguard is the host of Burlak, pop-placement of Kanin, whose head resembles the face of an ancient Greek philosopher. “What is the depth of the gaze raised to the eyebrows, also striving on the forehead. And the forehead is a big, smart, intelligent forehead – this is not a simpleton … ”, Repin shared his impressions.
The figures surrounding Kanina are endowed with individual features: the Nizhny Novgorod fighter with a powerful hand, Ilka-Moryak, who looks at the audience, is a tall, thin man with a pipe. The compositional center of the Burlakov walking in a conjunction is a boy in a red shirt named a stall, adjusting the strap crawling from thin shoulders. The maximum tension of his forces is emphasized by the images of the Burlaki nearby, one of which, leaning against a neighbor, slowly stuffs with a pipe tobacco, and the second wipes sweat from an exhausted and painful face. In the closing group, the profile of a bearded man in a hat is distinguished, which complements the general rhythmic pattern of a slowly walking crowd.
In general, a harsh group portrait of eleven Burlakov is born, created according to the rules of the “high genre”. Such a decision of the Burlat topic became unexpected for representatives of certain official circles.
Each of the heroes of the picture was a living face for Repin with his fate, character, and inner world. Repin raised the scene more than once seen in kind to a wide generalization, while maintaining the freshness of the immediate vital impression, filling the picture with a broad breathing of Volga expanses.
Repin finished the picture in March 1873. It was first exhibited in St. Petersburg in the same month at the art exhibition of works of painting and sculptures intended for sending to the World Exhibition. At the World Exhibition in Vienna (1873), the picture won a bronze medal and was bought for 3,000 rubles by Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, who hung it in his palace in St. Petersburg.
From the picture „Burlaki on the Volga, “highly appreciated at the World Exhibition, began European fame of Repin.
+ About the restoration of the work
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The state of safety before restoration:
In 1968, the Restoration Commission of the Russian Museum was pleasing to the decision to carry out a fundamental restoration of the work. Back in 1957, the commission for considering the possibility of transporting the picture to Moscow, which included leading specialists of the Russian Museum assessed the state of the picture as difficult: “Numerous, almost throughout the picture, deep cracks deteriorated sharply in comparison with its condition in 1918”.[1] The entire surface of the picture was covered by a large -knit hard craquelure of a colorful layer and soil with the raised edges (the mesh of the craquelure was reflected on the back of the base), the canvas became dilapidated, from which the general tension was weakened, the load from hard soil craquelure could lead to losses of a colorful layer and soil ; The varnish coating was very darkened and yellowed, which distorted the color color of the author’s painting, made it difficult for a holistic perception of the picture.
Complex of the events:
They started restoration with strengthening the colorful layer and soil over the entire surface, removing the canvas from the subframe, with the sequential extinguishing of each glued area. In total, the strengthening was carried out three times from the front side and four times on the back. After each strengthening of the back of the back, in the places of vertical fractures of the soil, a brass grid was applied in the lower part of the picture, close in weaving to the texture of the canvas. The plots covered with a grid were ironed with a warm iron, the mesh evenly distributed heating along the canvas and helped to eliminate deformations. Previously, a similar method was not used in restoration. After eliminating deformations and breaks, the picture was duplicated on a new canvas and stretched over the subframe. The next step was the thickening of the brown-golden film of varnish layers that distorted the author’s color palette. Trial clearings showed that the picture is covered with varnishes based on soft resins. This made it possible to carry out work on their removal and alignment according to the worked out methodology using the emulsion of the classical composition. The level of the thin film of the lower varnish remaining on the surface during operation was controlled in UV. The finest transparent layer of varnish was left so as not to hurt the upper layer of painting and copyrighted spies. Further, the picture is covered with a protective layer of restoration varnish. Painting acquired freshness and initial beauty.
[1] OR and VAMM. Fund № GRM (I).Inventory about.Rest. Units.xp. No. 103
Keeping a story. Restoration workshop of the Russian Museum – 100 years. SPb, 2022. With. 124-125.
Programs/Films about this work in the media text:
Conversations about art. R.AND. Gelman. The Russian Museum
Creation year: 2010 | Interactive program | Language:
The audiovisual lectures of the senior researcher of the Russian Museum, Honored Worker of Culture Regina Abramovna Gelman are devoted to several masterpieces from the collection of the Russian Museum. You can find out what “still life” is.E.Repin created his work “Burglaki on the Volga” or about how at the very difficult moment of his life in.And.Surikov decided to write “taking a snowy town”.
Ilya Repin “Burlaki on the Volga”. Samara (film 1-2)
Creation year: 2004 | Video painting | Language: | Duration: 52:00
The film tells about the history of Ilya Repin to the famous canvas “Burlaki on the Volga”, the popularity of which has as long as the same year as the picture itself and the picture itself.
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