REPINE Ilya Yefimovitch (1844-1930) Self-portrait. Wash... Lot 531

REPINE Ilya Yefimovitch (1844-1930) Self-portrait. Wash and graphite on paper, signed at the bottom by the artist in Latin letters "Ila Repine 1878", pasted onto a document bearing a handwritten inscription in Cyrillic characters in the artist's hand: "I certify that this self-portrait was indeed painted by me, on November 21, 1878, in Helsinki, Ilya Repin" with wax seal under paper at the bottom of the document, preserved under glass in an antique painted wood frame and frieze of gilded pearls. Good condition. Sight: drawing: H.: 16.5 cm - W.: 10 cm. Document: H.: 34 cm - W.: 12.5 cm. Frame: H.: 48 cm - W.: 25 cm. Biography: Before training as a painter, Ilya Yefimovitch Repine studied topography at the Military Academy, but two years later he joined the studio of icon painter I. Bounakoff in his native city. Bounakoff in his hometown of Chuguyev. In 1863, he took classes with Ivan Kramskoï and continued his training at the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts. From 1872 to 1876, he received a scholarship from the Academy to study in Europe. On his return, he became an active member of the Société des Peintres Ambulants (a group of realist painters), then taught at the Higher Art Institute of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, and at the Maria Tenicheva School (1894-1907). He was appointed to the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. Répine's work flourished in the 1880s. He composed a gallery of portraits of his contemporaries, worked as a painter of history and genre scenes, and is undeniably regarded today as one of the major painters of his time. Provenance: former private collection until 2000, then sold by Christie's in London on November 27, 2017 under no. 28. Reference: see another self-portrait by the artist in a pose quite similar to the one we present, painted in 1887, in "The Russian Vision - The Art Of Ilya Repin", by David Jackson, BAI Editions, 2002, page 219. This same work was presented in 2019 at the Petit Palais in Paris during the exhibition dedicated to the artist under the title "Ilya Répine (1844-1930), peindre l'âme russe" (Ilya Repin (1844-1930), painting the Russian soul), page 167 of the catalog.