Repin was born in Chuhuev near Kharkiv (Ukraine). His father was a military officer. In 1866 he went to Saint Petersburg and was admitted to the Imperial Academy of Arts as a student. Repin sojourned in Italy and Paris on the Academy's allowance from 1873 to 1876. He painted a large number of peasants, fishwomen and scenes from merchant life.
Repin joined the Association of Peredvizhniki Artists in 1878. From 1882 he lived in Saint Petersburg but made frequent tours abroad. Inspired by Rembrandt's portraits of old people, he painted many of his celebrated compatriots, including Leo Tolstoy, Mendeleyev, Pobedonostsev, and Mussorgsky. In 1903 he was commissioned by the Russian government to paint his most grandiose design, a 400 x 877 cm canvas representing a ceremonial session of the State Council.
After 1917October Revolution, his home Penaty, located to the north from Saint Petersburg, was incorporated into Finland. He was invited by Lenin to come back to Russia but was too old to make a journey. He died in Kuokkala, Finland (now Repino, Leningrad Oblast) in 1930.
Repin's most famous paintings are Ivan the Terrible killing his son (1885), The boat trackers on the Volga River (1870-73), and The Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan of Turkey (1880-91).
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