Ilya Repin was equally skilled in portraiture and in genre and historical painting.
His art represents the acme of Russian critical realism.
In his historical paintings Repin appears as a publicist.
He treats history first of all as a clash of the characters and fates of individuals. Rather than resurrect the past or associate the action of his heroes with the environment and customs of a bygone age, he seems to transfer the past into the present.
The picture Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581
is melodramatically effective. The eyes of the tsar wide open in horror, the blood spilled on the carpet and the sharp contrast of light and shadow are theatrically exaggerated. Having, in his unbridled wrath, mortally wounded his son Ivan, the tsar is aghast and repentant, as he presses the dying prince to his bosom. The meek gentle prince is eager to forgive his brutal father. In its time painting had a profoundly civic ring. In creating the image of a monarch who committed a heinous crime, the painter demolishes belief in the infallibility of “anointed” sovereigns and strips autocracy of its awe.
The expressive, intense composition and psychological insight in rendering the characters produced an unforgettable impression on the spectators.
Ivan IV The Terrible (Ioann, Joan) (1530-84) Great Duke of Moscow and All Russia from 1533, the first Russian Tzar from 1547 and until his death. His politics led to the territorial expansion of Russia, consolidation of central power, structural reorganization of the institutions of power; increase of political and trade relations with England and the Netherlands in Europe, with Kabarda and Kakhetya in the Caucasus and Bukhara in the East. At the same time the strengthening and toughening of the serfdom led to future economical failure in Russia. He was a quick-tempered, irascible person, very hard to deal with. His elder son Ivan Ivanovich (1554-1581), the heir, a strong person and supporter of his father, did not always agree with him. During one of their hot disputes, Tzar Ivan struck his son with his heavy staff. The blow landed on the temple and the tzarevich died. Repin managed to show the tragedy of a man and a father.
