The Barge Haulers on the Volga by Ilya Repin Essay

One of the most famous Russian paintings that portray the suffering yet thriving in harsh conditions is The Barge Haulers on the Volga by Realism genre painter, Ilya Repin. This painting was painted in 1873 on the basis of numerous studies and portrait sketches collected young painter while traveling along the Volga River in 1870, and was a testament to his creative spiritual maturity. In one of the letters to Stasov, Repin wrote that the theme of the painting was born under the impression seen on the Neva River and Volga River scenes: festively dressed gentlemen strolling and haulers in the next strap, pulling the barge. There are eleven characters, all as one, - the poor and disadvantaged, but each - with personality and character.†¦show more content†¦This open landscape was for its time achievement for treatment of space, the nature of colors, based on a combination of yellow and blue shades. Hot sand shoals distance moves gang boatmen pulling a barge. More than one hun dred miles away, these people have been in the webbing. The bright sun illuminates the whole gang; dark spot gloomy anxiety group of people dressed in rags emphasizes calmness, clarity landscape full of light and air boundless expanse. A narrow strip of coast, the vague outlines of the hills behind the broad water surface reinforce the impression of vastness and depth of the Volga landscape that allows the artist to even sharper shade dark, greasy, a brown stain (as he describes in a letter to Stasov) - boatmen. The first impression from the picture it is this: the landscape of sparkling sun moves a dark spot. A viewer is captivated by the scenery of River Volga’s exhausted from the heat and fatigue, along the shore of the great river boatmen slowly pulling heavy unwieldy barge to the short. Boatmen are shown at the time of exhausting and mind-numbing work. However, this does not cause feelings of depression or hopelessness. Conversely, a heavy tread of boatmen, power worker s - all this gives the impression of the inner strength of the people, the great power of Russia. A viewer sees the different emotional and physical states of each person: the barge hauler with a pipe, an old man,Show MoreRelatedAnalysis On Barge Haulers On The Volga 1449 Words   |  6 Pages Mengyao Hou Art Matters 04/20 2015 Barge Haulers on the Volga Barge Haulers on the Volga is a painting by Ilya Yafimovich Repin. It uses oil on canvas, and stretches to 131.5 cm Ãâ€" 281 cm. It was painted in the early 1870’s and currently hangs in the State Russian Museum. Repin painted Barge Haulers on the Volga during a very turbulent time in Russian history. This was a difficult time for laborers in Russia, the time of early Marxism, which is a worldview that uses materialism in order to dispute