Ilya Yefimovich Repin

Ilya Yefimovich Repin (1844-1930), Russian painter, born in Chuguyev, considered the outstanding realist of his generation. Although he was a good drafter and a skilled colorist, he was known mainly for his subject matter: His deeply moving scenes of common people were an indictment of the tsarist regime. His Volga Boatmen (1873, Russian State Museum, Saint Petersburg), showing bargemen harnessed together like beasts of burden, made him famous. He went on to paint large historical subjects, as well as thoughtful portraits of the great Russian composers and writers. His work became the model for mid-20th-century Soviet socialist realism.