The exhibition of the Military Medical Museum opens with a bust of the father of military field medicine Nikolay Pirogov. The sculpture was cast in bronze in 1946 using a plaster mold created by the artist Ilya Repin in 1881.

Repin was interested not only in art, but also in science. He kept track of the national medicine and respected Pirogov’s works. The artist wanted to paint a portrait of the scientist, and such an opportunity presented itself in May 1881. During the celebration of the 50th anniversary of his medical and scientific activity, Pirogov arrived in Moscow. Repin did not miss a single anniversary meeting in the assembly hall of Moscow University, during which he observed the scientist and made sketches. Later, the artist met with Pirogov in person. In three sessions of posing, Repin painted a portrait in oil, which he later gave to the Tretyakov Gallery in 1882.

The last work of Repin dedicated to Pirogov was a sculptural portrait of the surgeon. On June 14, 1881, in a letter from Khotkovo, where the artist’s dacha (country house) was located, Repin wrote to his friend, art expert and critic Vladimir Stasov,

In August, the work was completed, and a mold was made from the original bust of Repin, with which it was possible to cast plaster copies. The painter gave one copy to the philanthropist Savva Mamontov, who let Repin live in his estate while he was working on the scupture, and he intended to give the other one to Moscow University, but eventually kept it for himself.

Although Repin had almost never engaged in modeling, Stasov remembered him to be a good sculptor. The artist himself rated his work highly: in a letter addressed to the collector Pavel Tretyakov, he said that ‘the bust came out good, the resemblance is stronger than in the portrait.’ This was confirmed by reviewers at the 10th Traveling Exhibition in 1882, ‘We consider this bust to be superior to Pirogov’s portrait, ” wrote Aleksandrov, editor of the ‘Art Magazine’ (‘Khudozhestvenniy Zhurnal’). At the same time, Repin was not sure that his work would be of interest to the public.

‘No one commissioned the portrait and bust of Pirogov, and I even think that it will forever remain my property. Who needs a portrait or a bust of a genius in our country (and Pirogov is a genius),’ the artist wrote to Vladimir Stasov.