# Il'ja Efimovic Repin artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/il-ja-efimovic-repin/
Profile generated: 2026-05-13T06:29:30.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1844-08-05
- Death date: 1930-09-29
- Nationality: Russian Empire, Ukrainian
- Movements: Peredvizhniki (The Wanderers / The Itinerants), Realism
- Common media: Oil painting, Watercolor, Drawing and graphic works, Engraving, Sculpture

## About Il'ja Efimovic Repin

Ilya Yefimovich Repin (1844–1930) was a Ukrainian-born painter who became one of the most celebrated artists of the Russian Empire. Trained at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, he joined the Peredvizhniki (Wanderers), a collective committed to realist art addressing social and historical themes. His best-known canvases — Barge Haulers on the Volga, Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan, Religious Procession in Kursk Province, and Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks — are landmarks of nineteenth-century narrative painting. Repin was equally sought after as a portraitist, producing vivid likenesses of Leo Tolstoy, Modest Mussorgsky, and other leading cultural figures. After study years in Paris and Rome, he returned to Russia and taught at the Academy before settling at his Penaty estate in Finland, where he continued working until late in life.

## Common works and media

Oil paintings on historical and social-realist themes, portrait commissions of cultural and public figures, religious and ceremonial scenes, charcoal and pencil drawings, watercolor studies, and graphic prints. Portraits of writers, composers, and intellectuals form a large and recognizable portion of his output. Smaller oil sketches and preparatory studies surface more often at auction than finished multi-figure compositions.

## Market and appraisal context

Repin's most important paintings reside in Russian state collections and essentially never reach the open market. Collectors are far more likely to encounter portraits, figure studies, drawings, watercolors, and prints. Value depends heavily on medium, subject matter, date, provenance, condition, and whether the work has been published or exhibited. Attributions deserve scrutiny because Repin maintained a busy studio and taught many pupils; specialist connoisseurship or committee authentication is advisable. Russian export restrictions may also affect international sales.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine identity research from museum records and library authority files with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available.

## Sources

- RKD: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/67240
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q172911
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Repin
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/ilya-repin-1829
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/24488
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500024225
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/30329364/
- Il'ja Efimovic Repin: http://ilya-repin.ru/