Repin's Tour of Ukraine (1880)
Of course, in a very general way, Repin was acquainted with most of these facts. Still, he wished to make his painting as historically and ethnographically accurate as possible. The dress, weaponry, physique, and faces of the Cossacks were to reflect the realities of old Ukraine.
So he personally interviewed Kostomarov on these matters. The historian, who had pioneered the use of ethnography, especially historical songs, in his many histories, was enthusiastic about the project and charmed the artist with his stories of old Zaporozhia and even mapped out a research trip along the Dnieper for Repin to follow.17From May to September 1880, Repin, who had long dreamed of visiting Kyiv and the Cossack country south of it, took up Kostomarov's suggestion and toured Ukraine in the company of V.A. Serov, his pupil. As a young schoolboy Serov had studied for some time in Kyiv and had acquired a real appreciation for the beauties of the Ukrainian language. The two travelled down the Dnieper, visiting Kyiv and Zaporozhia, and going as far south as Odessa on the Black Sea, visiting local museums, sketching artefacts, especially weapons and costumes, drawing the locals, especially those whom Repin thought might be descended from Cossack ancestors, and painting the countryside. Repin even sought out and painted what he believed to be the grave of the legendary Zaporozhian “Otaman” Ivan Sirko (d. 1680), whom he later made one of the central figures in the best-known version of his painting. For a month and a half, he stayed at Kachanivka, at the estate of the famous Ukrainian landowner in Chernihiv province, VV. Tarnovsky the Younger (1837-1899), whose family had earlier hosted Gogol, Shevchenko, Kostomarov, Gay (Ge), and many others, and whose collection of Ukrainian Cossack artefacts Repin studied and whose portrait he painted at least twice: The Cossack (1880, tg) and The Hetman (1880, Sumy Art Museum).
In the second picture, Tarnovsky is dressed in an early-eighteenth- century scarlet Cossack costume with gold and silver trim, a pistol stuck in his cummerbund and a saber at his side; he is leaning on an old Cossack cannon. Repin at this time also copied what was (probably incorrectly) believed to be an old portrait (Dnipropetrovsk History Museum) of Hetman Ivan Mazepa (d. 1709), who had rebelled against Peter the Great. Repin also painted Tarnovsky's wife, Sofiia, at a piano (Sumy Art Museum).18 Every evening Repin would visit the Ukrainian villages surrounding Kachanivka, observe the local customs, and sketch the country folk. It was at Kachanivka as well that Repin did crucial work on his exuberant Evening Party.
His last stop in Ukraine was at the estate of his colleague the painter Mykola Gay/N.N. Ge, also in Chernihiv province, where he painted the lady of the house, before returning to Moscow loaded with albums filled with drawings and studies.19 Over the years, Repin painted portraits of at least four of his fellow artists, whose names were closely linked to Ukraine: Mykola Murashko, Mykola Gay/Ge, Ivan Kramskoi/Ivan Kramsky, and Arkhip I. Kuindzi.
Repin was clearly following not only Kostomarov's advice but also his example. That historian famously did not restrict himself to dry chronicles and documents, but also closely examined the life of the common people through study of their historical songs and ballads, their folklore, and their present customs, values, manners, and morals. “It cannot be,” Kostomarov wrote, “that past centuries are not reflected in the lives and memories of their heirs.” Similarly, Repin had undertaken that trip to Ukraine, and he had approached its people directly with a view to capturing the psychology and physical character of their predecessors. It was often said that Repin could paint only what he actually saw, and in Ukraine he most definitely saw those Zaporozhians of old.20