Ilya Yefimovich Repin was one of the most celebrated painters of the nineteenth century. His best-known painting is the bawdy, raucous masterpiece The Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan. The canvas was begun in 1880 and completed eleven years later. After Repin at long last completed the work, Alexander III purchased the painting for 35,000 roubles – at the time, it was the highest price ever paid for a painting in Russia.
Repin strived for historical accuracy and based his composition on meticulous first-hand research, conducted in Ukraine from 1880, and conversations with historians. This necessitated the creation of numerous preparatory sketches, of which this is a particularly characterful example.
