The painting of the outstanding Russian artist Ilya Efimovich Repin "Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on November 16, 1581", better known as "Ivan the Terrible kills his son" has a difficult and interesting fate. The psychological power emanating from the canvas makes a strong impression … It is no coincidence that especially sensitive people often, literally, fall into a stupor when looking at this canvas. Much has been written about the plot of the painting and the painting technique, but the painting also has other aspects of her life, about which not much is known.
Artist Repin I. E..
As Repin himself recalled, he painted the picture in some kind of a kind of trance, then making sketch after sketch, then throwing his brushes in desolation. The artist could not leave the work for a long time, the painting seemed to beckoning him to continue working. For the image of the heroes of his painting, Repin tried to find suitable prototypes both among acquaintances and among random people he met on the street. The prototype of the tsarevich was the writer V. M. Garshin. Coincidentally, or maybe some kind of evil fate after painting, he died. Garshin committed suicide by throwing himself down a flight of stairs (however, the writer had a hereditary mental illness, and perhaps it was just a particularly strong exacerbation?).
The picture received scandalous fame from its first showing to the general public. Rumors about the painting circulated even before the exhibition began. The excitement was great. Alexander III almost immediately banned the showing of the picture to the general public, both because of the ambiguous plot and because of the impression, since some people began to get hysterical, and some even fainted. Repin realized what impression the picture would make on the audience even when the picture was just being prepared for showing. According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, when the painting was just brought to the exhibition pavilion and unpacked, the noise of the hammers died down and there was a deathly silence. The shocked workers stared at the painting in mute daze.
The picture also took its place in the history of the revolutionary movement in Russia. People's will swore in front of the canvas of the great artist to devote all themselves to the cause of overthrowing the autocracy. The picture was shocked by the famous patron of art Tretyakov, who bought it. The picture was forbidden to be displayed, and only three years later, thanks to the artist A. P. Bogolyubov. who had a noticeable influence at the court, the painting was allowed to be exhibited.
The painting was also attacked. The first time this happened in January 1913. The painting was attacked by Balashov, an iconographer-Old Believer, who pounced on the painting and made three cuts on the faces of the Tsar and Tsarevich. Ilya Repin himself rushed to restore the picture. And here the picture could really perish, or rather, cease to be the masterpiece as we know it now. Ilya Repin, as if in a trance, began to rewrite faces. It's good that the assistants noticed this and were able to distract the painter. Since then, the painting has been kept under protective glass. The painting was attacked for the second time already in our time. On May 25, 2018, an unemployed man from Voronezh broke the frame and managed to damage part of the figure of Tsarevich Ivan in the center.
Now the painting is exhibited at the State Tretyakov Gallery. So the picture also has an interesting and difficult fate, like its characters.
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