Repin's painting "Cossacks (Cossacks) write a letter to the Turkish Sultan"

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

There is hardly anyone who would not know the famous painting by Ilya Efimovich Repin, which tells how the Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan. The picture is familiar to everyone since childhood. This is one of the most replicated works of classical Russian painting. And one of the peaks in the work of the great Russian artist. The idea of creating a painting came to Repin suddenly, when he read the text of this famous letter in a circle of friends. Those present say that Repin grabbed a pencil and immediately sketched out a sketch in which the Cossacks gathered at the camp site write a letter to the Turkish Sultan Mohammed the Fourth. But in order to overcome the distance between an instant pencil sketch and a brilliant canvas, Ilya Efimovich had to work hard.

Episode from the history of the seventeenth century

The event depicted by Repin in the picture of how the Cossacks write 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 Various versions of a historical document, on which the characters are enthusiastically working onRepin's painting can be found and read.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 stupidity to offer freedom-loving people his feudal patronage. The Cossacks responded to the powerful monarch in such a way that this insult could only be washed away with blood. People fully understand the value 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 a foreign monarch.

About how Repin's painting "Cossacks writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan" was created

In order for us to see this textbook work, the author had to do a titanic work. Repin's creative method did not recognize other approaches than working with nature. He specially went to Zaporozhye for field sketches. There is not a single random element in the most complex multi-figured composition of the picture. When we see how the Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan, somehow the simple fact is not even immediately realized that we, among other things, also have portraits of specific people, Repin's contemporaries. The artist devoted a lot of time and effort to finding suitable sitters.

All ethnographic elements of clothing and everyday life are copied from real historical costumes and museum exhibits. Many of Repin's contemporaries, who observedthe process of creating this canvas, were dissatisfied with its end. They believe that the author spoiled a lot when he brought into 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 this was the decision of the artist, he decided to balance the overall composition with this gray spot. This completed more than a decade of work on a masterpiece. Subsequently, it was acquired by Emperor Alexander the Third.