Ilya Repin

Ilya Repin's paintings range from portraits to large historical and contemporary scenes, developed through drawings and painted studies. Barge Haulers on the Volga grew from river journeys and portraits of actual haulers. Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom (1876) depicts a merchant's encounter from a Novgorod epic. Commissioned by the future Alexander III and painted in France, it combines the Russian narrative with an underwater setting informed by studies of marine life.