By order of Alexander III in 1893, the Academy of Arts carried out necessary reforms. The Emperor ordered to change the training system and invite the Itinerants to become teachers. There were created personal studios, where Ilya Yefimovich Repin, Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi, Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin and other famous artists began to work. Ilya Yefimovich taught at the studio until 1907 and for two years served as the rector of the academy.
The painter himself had not entered it immediately. At his first attempt, he was told that he had not mastered shading. The failure upset the 19-year-old Ilya Repin but he did not give up; instead, he entered a drawing school, where he quickly became the best. The second visit to the academy was successful, but the artist always remembered the failure and tried to protect his students from disappointment.
He did not have a rigid system of teaching, he preferred to show actual examples to future painters. Often the artist would sit down at the easel in his studio and paint from life next to his students. Then everyone would line up behind the master and watch his work.
Anna Petrovna Ostroumova-Lebedeva, who later became a famous landscape painter, recalled such lessons. According to her, Ilya Repin did not just paint but spiritualized the canvas so that the observers saw neither the canvas nor the paints — only a living nature.
In such a way was created Model — a vivid example of the educational set-up of Ilya Yefimovich Repin during his work at the studio of the Academy of Arts. The fact that this picture was painted in a very short time without preliminary tracing speaks eloquently of the artist’s skill. This large and complex canvas conveys the lighting, space, fluffy hair of the model that one wants to touch and texture of the carpet. The study can be seen in a picture of the studio, taken in 1897-1898.
The painter himself had not entered it immediately. At his first attempt, he was told that he had not mastered shading. The failure upset the 19-year-old Ilya Repin but he did not give up; instead, he entered a drawing school, where he quickly became the best. The second visit to the academy was successful, but the artist always remembered the failure and tried to protect his students from disappointment.
He did not have a rigid system of teaching, he preferred to show actual examples to future painters. Often the artist would sit down at the easel in his studio and paint from life next to his students. Then everyone would line up behind the master and watch his work.
Anna Petrovna Ostroumova-Lebedeva, who later became a famous landscape painter, recalled such lessons. According to her, Ilya Repin did not just paint but spiritualized the canvas so that the observers saw neither the canvas nor the paints — only a living nature.
In such a way was created Model — a vivid example of the educational set-up of Ilya Yefimovich Repin during his work at the studio of the Academy of Arts. The fact that this picture was painted in a very short time without preliminary tracing speaks eloquently of the artist’s skill. This large and complex canvas conveys the lighting, space, fluffy hair of the model that one wants to touch and texture of the carpet. The study can be seen in a picture of the studio, taken in 1897-1898.
