There is hardly anyone who would not know the famous painting by Ilya Efimovich Repin, telling about how the Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan. The picture is familiar to everyone since childhood. This is one of the most circulated works of classical Russian painting. And one of the peaks in the work of the great Russian artist. Repin suddenly came up with the idea of creating a picture when he familiarized himself with the text of this famous letter among his friends. Those present say that Repin grabbed a pencil and immediately outlined a sketch in which the Cossacks gathered at the camp site write a letter to the Turkish Sultan Mohammed the Fourth. But, in order to overcome the distance between an instant pencil sketch and a brilliant canvas, Ilya Efimovich had to work hard.
Seventeenth Century History Episode
The event depicted by Repin in the picture of how the Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan took place in real history. We only see how the great Russian painter interpreted this scene. Various versions of the historical document, on the preparation of which the characters of the Repin painting enthusiastically work, can be found and read. They are written very expressively and boldly. This is an open challenge to the obviously stronger enemy, who had the imprudent stupidity to offer his freedom-loving people his feudal protection. The Cossacks answered the powerful monarch so that this insult can be washed away only with blood. People fully understand the price of their jokes. About this picture. A letter from the Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan will be added and sent to the addressee. And the Cossacks will go their own way, without waiting for an answer. He is not interested in them. They are free people and do not need the patronage of a foreign monarch.
About how the picture of Repin "Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan" was created
In order for us to see this become a textbook work, the author had to do a titanic work. Repin's creative method did not recognize other approaches than working with nature. He specially went to Zaporozhye for full-scale sketches. In the most complicated multi-figured composition of the picture there is not a single random element. When we see how the Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan, we somehow don’t even immediately realize the simple fact that we, in addition to other things, also have portraits of specific people, Repin’s contemporaries. The artist devoted a lot of time and effort to finding suitable sitters.
All ethnographic elements of clothing and everyday life are copied from real historical costumes and museum exhibits. Many of Repin's contemporaries who observed the process of creating this canvas were unhappy with its completion. They believe that the author spoiled a lot when he put into action a hero standing with his back on the right side of the composition. His wide gray caftan covered many bright figures in this part of the canvas. But such was the artist’s decision, with this gray spot he decided to balance the overall composition. This was completed more than a decade of work on the masterpiece. Subsequently, it was acquired by Emperor
Alexander the Third.