The Portrait of Vsevolod Garshin by Ilya Repin (aka most beautiful picture in the world asdlajsdlfal)

Vsevolod Garshin by Ilya Repin
*please really look at and appreciate the colors used, the brush strokes, and the subject matter itself

About the Painting

What? 

• C'est exactement comme je l'ai dit...It's a portrait of Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin who wrote Russian short stories. 
• Medium: Oil on Canvas
• Size: 35" x 27 1/4" (about 3 feet by 2.3 feet, rather large)

Why? 

• I couldn't really find why Repin painted him, but I found something rather close. Read this paragraph, I can't write it any better (it's really engaging :o).

     "The portrait's power stems from its intensity. Ilya Efimovich Repin (1844-1930) painted his friend—and occasional model—Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin, just like he portrayed most of the Russian intelligentsia, including Leo Tolstoy, during the era of the last czar. Garshin sat for his portrait, Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin (cover), at age 29 years, yet he appears, depicted for posterity, much older than his chronological age. Garshin, the novelist, playwright, and pacifist supporter of the radical spirit in Russia of the late 1870s and early 1880s, suffered from depression and the terrible legacy of his father's and brother's suicides. Sitting at a desk, surrounded by the books and papers of his vocation and trade, the bearded writer stares out at the audience, and most probably was gazing directly at Repin while the painter worked. Garshin's eyes burn, if not with revolutionary fervor, then perhaps with fever; his overall appearance is that of an intellectual, unconcerned with material goods and wardrobe. Vsevolod Mikhailovich slumps, his shoulders and upper spine rounded in the pose of one who reads and writes for the better part of each day. Four years after Repin immortalized him, Garshin cascaded, purposefully, down some stairs and ended his own life."

About the Artist

Biography?

• Am I allowed to quote websites because I think I just might lol

     "Ilya Repin was a talented Russian painter of the Peredvizhniki School, who was held up by the Soviet government as an artist to be imitated by the new school of Socialist Realists. At the age of 22, Repin began his art career at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, the same time as the “Rebellion of the Fourteen,” when 14 young artists left the school after refusing to paint mythological paintings for their diplomas. These artists would later form the Society of the Peredvizhniki, which Repin joined in 1878. Repin and the free thinking “itinerants,” as they were also called, rebelled against the formal academy, insisting that art should reflect real life. As an art student, his travels took him to Italy, Paris and Impressionist Exhibitions, and although he was exposed to the vivid colors and quick brush strokes of the impressionist style, he remained true to his unique form of realism. 

     Many of the subjects Repin painted were common people, like himself, although he did on many occasions paint the Russian elite, intelligentsia, and Tsar Nicholas II. He also painted many of his contemporary compatriots, including novelist Leo Tolstoy, composer Modest Mussorgsky, scientist Dmitri Mendeleev, and Ukranian painter Taras Schevchenko. A common recurring theme in his paintings was the Russian Revolutionary Movement, and as a result his works are often classified as a “Russian national style.

     In his later life, he lived in a house in Kuokkala, Finland, called the Penates, which he designed and built himself. After the October Revolution of 1917, Finland declared Independence, and Repin was invited to return to the Soviet Union. He refused, saying that he was too old to make the journey, and remained in Finland until his death thirteen years later. In 1940, the Penates house was opened to the public as a museum."

 Politics?

• He was rebellious towards many of the ideas of the time. He tried to stay out of politics and focus on religion, but this is not as evident in his paintings. His paintings reflect a lot of political thoughts and events that occurred throughout his lifetime. 

Style?

A Self Portrait of Ilya Repin mmm dat weave

• He was a realist in a time of just anything but. He typically used oil paint (on canvases) for his paintings and he sculpted as well. 
• He was known for portraying "hugely emotional settings which carried powerful meanings"  where he tried to make people see the importance of the event he was depicting. 

✗ For more information, visit this site.