"Cossacks" (also known as “The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan» ) — famous painting Russian artist Ilya Repin. The huge panel (2.03 x 3.58 m) was started in 1880 and completed only in 1891. The artist wrote sketches for the painting in the Kuban village of Pashkovskaya, Yekaterinodar, in the Kachanovka estate in the Chernigov province and the Kuban region.
According to legend, the letter was written in 1676 by the Kosh Ataman Ivan Sirko “with all the Zaporozhye Kosh” in response to the Sultan’s ultimatum Ottoman Empire Mehmed (Muhammad) IV.
The original letter has not survived, but in the 1870s, an amateur ethnographer from Yekaterinoslav, Ya. P. Novitsky, found a copy made in the 18th century. He handed it over to the famous historian D.I. Yavornitsky, who once read it as a curiosity to his guests, among whom was, in particular, I.E. Repin. The artist became interested in the subject, and in 1880 he began the first series of sketches.
D. I. Yavornitsky
After 1880, Repin was engaged in a leisurely and lengthy series of sketches and selection of models. Among the models who posed for Repin’s painting were many famous personalities. In particular, for the central characters the artist chose the historian Dmitry Yavornitsky as a clerk, and the ataman Sirko was the Kyiv Governor-General Mikhail Dragomirov himself. Journalist and writer Vladimir Gilyarovsky posed for a laughing Cossack in a white hat. The first completed oil sketch appeared in 1887. Repin gave it to Yavornitsky. Later Yavornitsky sold it to P. M. Tretyakov and now it is in the Tretyakov Gallery. The main (one might say classic) version of the painting was completed in 1891.
After the first public viewing, the artist was criticized for the fact that, according to many, the painting was “historically inaccurate.” Nevertheless, the fate of the canvas was successful. After a resounding success at several exhibitions in Russia and abroad (Chicago, Budapest, Munich, Stockholm), the painting was bought by Emperor Alexander III in 1892 for 35 thousand rubles. The painting remained in the royal collection until 1917, and after the revolution it ended up in the collection of the Russian Museum.
Having not yet completed the main version, Repin in 1889 began work on the second, which he never finished. This canvas is somewhat smaller in size than the original version, and is, so to speak, a behind-the-scenes copy. The artist tried to make the second version of “Cossacks” more “historically accurate.” It is now stored in Kharkov art museum.
(Wikipedia)
And here is another excellent article by N. Bubelo about the painting (although there is an inconsistency in it with the Wikipedia article about the prototype of the “laughing Cossack”):
Ab ovo, as they say...
Message of Muhammad IV
I, Sultan, son of Muhammad, brother of the Sun and Moon, grandson and vicegerent of God, owner of the kingdoms of Macedon, Babylon, Jerusalem, Great and Lesser Egypt, king over kings, ruler over rulers, extraordinary knight, invincible warrior, relentless guardian of the Holy Sepulcher, the trustee of God himself, the hope and consolation of Muslims, the confusion and great protector of Christians - I command you, the Zaporozhye Cossacks, to surrender to me voluntarily without any resistance and not to make me worry with your attacks.
Turkish Sultan Mohammed IV.
The Cossacks' response to Muhammad IV
I am forced to report that, alas, there are no parliamentary expressions in the Cossacks’ response. Our glorious ancestors clearly preferred obscene expressions, about which I warn everyone reading this famous answer - N.B.
Zaporizhian Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan!
You, Sultan, the Turkish devil, the damned devil’s brother and comrade, Lucepper’s own secretary. What kind of devil are you if you don’t kill a hedgehog with your naked ass! The devil hangs, and yours devours. You, you son of a bitch, will not be a Christian mother under you, we are not afraid of your kingdom, we will fight with you with earth and water , broke your mother.
You are the cook of Babylon, the Macedonian charioteer, the Jerusalem brawler, the Alexandrian goatman, the pig of Great and Lesser Egypt, the Armenian pig, the Podolyanian villain, the Tatar sagaidak, the Kamenets kat, and the whole world has a blasphemy, and our God is a fool, he is a gasp himself uk and our dick hook. A pig's face, a pig's ass, a raznitsya dog, an unchristened forehead, motherfucker!
That’s what the Cossacks said to you, poor fellow. You will not feed Christian pigs. Now it’s over, because we don’t know the date and there’s no calendar, there’s a month in the sky, a river in the prince, and the day is the same for us as it is for you, for a kiss on our ass!
Signed: Kosh otaman Ivan Sirko with all the Zaporizhian cats
And Ilya Efimovich Repin (by the way, almost our fellow countryman - a native of the Kharkov province) painted his canvas for more than ten years - from 1880 to 1891. It all began with a series of sketches in 1880. After that there was a leisurely series of sketches and selection of models. The first completed oil sketch appeared in 1887. Repin presented it to D.I. Yavornitsky. Later Yavornitsky sold it to Tretyakov, and now it hangs in the Tretyakov Gallery:
The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan. Sketch
I.E. Repin, while working on the canvas, repeatedly put aside his brushes with oil, and came to us, in the Dnepropetrovsk region (pardonnez-moi, no matter how painful it may sound for someone - Ekaterinoslav region), where I met with Yavornitsky and our other famous, and not so famous, fellow countrymen, and made sketches, sketches, etudes...
Many characters famous painting the artist saw it here, although he found someone in St. Petersburg - it was such a sin! And so, it’s still interesting to find out who is actually depicted on the canvas?
Who is who?
For example, one of the very colorful characters was copied from the artist Ivan Frantsevich Tsionglinsky, a teacher at the drawing school of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, an active participant in the St. Petersburg creative association"World of Art". More precisely, he was Jan Frantsevich, because. was born in Warsaw, and by nationality, it turns out, was a Pole, however, he still kept company with the Cossacks.
But, let’s say, this handsome guy with noble features and a completely intelligent grin is none other than the great-nephew of the famous Russian composer M.I. Glinka. Repin found it young man in St. Petersburg - in those days he (of course, Glinka) was a chamber-page.
The tall kazarlyuga with a bandage on his head is the Odessa artist Nikolai Dmitrievich Kuznetsov. Joker, strongman, academician of the Academy of Arts, professor, class leader battle painting in Academy. Kuznetsov made friends with all of Odessa, was the founder of the Association of South Russian Artists in Odessa and the Odessa Literary and Artistic Society. By the way, don’t be fooled by his Odessa origin and Russian surname - he was Greek by nationality.
This sweet couple— Glinka and Kuznetsov — according to the artist’s plan, were supposed to represent textbook images of Andriy and Ostap.
A toothless, wrinkled old man with a cradle was sketched by Repin from a random fellow traveler on the pier of the city of Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporozhye). History has not preserved his name, but his image was captured by the artist on long years the existence of the painting.
A typical bursak with a haircut makitra, and who has not yet managed to grow a mustache - the artist Porfiry Demyanovich Martynovich. He studied at the Academy of Arts and, by the way, mastered filigree graphics, but due to illness at the age of 25 he was forced to give up painting. However, the most interesting thing is that Repin had never seen him in his life. And he wrote the character “Cossacks” not from the living Martynovich, but from a plaster mask removed from his face young artist. And what’s even more funny is that the poor guy, when the mask was taken off him (alive!), grinned, and the grin remained on the mask. So Repin copied it.
And for this gloomy type with a twilight gaze, none other than Vasily Vasilyevich Tarnovsky, a Ukrainian collector and philanthropist, owner of the famous Kachanovka estate, posed. By the way, he was also the leader of the nobility of the Borznyansky and Nezhinsky districts of the Chernigov province. In Kachanovka, Repin copied Cossack ammunition (and at the same time - Vasily Vasilyevich himself), which Tarnovsky had in heaps: his collection of antiquities of the Cossack era became the basis of the collection of the Chernigov Historical Museum.
Not only V.V. Tarnovsky was included in the picture, but also his coachman, Nikishka. Here he represents the image of the Cossack Golota. Repin, being delighted with the Nikishkins’ gap-toothed, one-eyed, drunkenness and laughter, managed to sketch him when he and Tarnovsky were crossing the Dnieper on a ferry.
Well, here is the ataman himself - the then Koshevoy of the Sich, Ivan Dmitrievich Sirko - one of the central figures of the picture. The artist searched for a suitable image for him for a long time, finally settling on General Mikhail Ivanovich Dragomirov, then commander of the troops of the Kyiv Military District, later the Kiev Governor-General. A hero of the Russian-Turkish war, a joker, a merry fellow and a joker, M.I. Dragomirov was unusually popular among the people of Kiev. There were legends about him, the most famous of which is classic story with a telegram sent personally to Emperor Alexander: “For the third day we have been drinking Your Majesty’s health.” In general, the general, like I.D. Sirko, also had experience in the original epistolary genre, which may have prompted Repin to choose him as the central model.
But the character depicting a Tatar was, indeed, based on a Tatar student. But please note that not all of his facial features are Tatar. The beautiful white teeth were “borrowed” by the artist (sic) from the skull of a Cossack Cossack, found at excavations near the Sich. In general, our ancestors were good - don’t put your finger in their mouth!
For the fat man, who was supposed to portray another textbook character - Taras Bulba - the prototype turned out to be the professor of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Alexander Ivanovich Rubets. Despite the fact that Alexander Ivanovich lived and worked in St. Petersburg, he was originally from Starodub and was a descendant of a Polish noble family. There was a scar talented musician and a teacher, he played many instruments beautifully, including the piano and bandura. More than ten thousand pupils passed through his hands, and his huge collection of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian folk songs(about six thousand!) is still waiting for its publication - if, of course, it could be found...
A thin, tall, long-moustached Cossack peeks sadly from behind Rubets-Bulba. Bah! Yes, this is another musician. And who! Soloist Mariinsky Theater, Fyodor Ignatievich Stravinsky. By the way, father famous composer Igor Stravinsky. By the way, F.I. Stravinsky was also a good artist, and at one time he hesitated for a long time about where to enter: the conservatory or the Academy of Arts. Love for music won, but Fyodor Ignatievich was noticed in all kinds of arts - even in “Cossacks”.
Well, the owner of this vast bald spot and three-story nape is none other than Georgy Petrovich Alekseev. The personality, I must say, is unique. Leader of the nobility of the Ekaterinoslav province, Chief Chamberlain of His Majesty's court, holder of almost all Russian orders, honorary citizen of the city of Ekaterinoslav, passionate numismatist, author scientific works on Russian numismatics. There is a very anecdotal story about how he posed for Repin. He, seeing his unique back of the head and bald spot, was eager to capture them in the picture. However, Alekseev indignantly rejected the artist’s offer to pose for him in such an unsightly position. Here Yavornitsky came to Repin’s aid. Having invited Alekseev to look at his collection of coins, he quietly sat the artist in the back, and while the trusting numismatist admired the collection, the deft hand of the master depicted him from the right angle. Georgy Petrovich, having recognized himself already in the Tretyakov Gallery, was very offended by both, but there was nothing to do...
The half-naked Zaporozhye warrior (and also a gambler) is a friend of Repin and Yavornitsky, our fellow countryman, teacher public school, Konstantin Dmitrievich Belonovsky. However, he was a gambler only in the plot of the picture, and not at all in life. By the way, precisely because this character should represent the image of not only a warrior, but also an amateur gambling, he is depicted with a naked torso - during a serious game, the Cossacks took off their shirts so as not to hide the cards in their bosoms and sleeves.
And finally, one more central character paintings: the clerk, aka Dmitry Ivanovich Yavornitsky, in person. Well, Repin could not help but depict our glorious fellow countryman in the picture! After all, it was Yavornitsky who was the main inspirer and consultant of the artist. It was from the exhibits of Yavornitsky’s collection that Repin copied most ammunition, weapons and other Cossack paraphernalia. And, as already mentioned, Ilya Efimovich gave the first completed sketch of the painting to Dmitry Ivanovich. By the way, Repin did not immediately manage to squeeze the smile that is captured in the painting out of Yavornitsky. When Yavornitsky arrived at the artist’s studio to pose, he was very gloomy. But by the way, Repin found a magazine with cartoons, which he slipped to Yavornitsky. After looking at a few pages, he began to smile, and in this form he ended up in the final version of the picture.
Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to identify all the characters depicted in the picture. But it is known that Gilyarovsky, Myasoedov, Mamin-Sibiryak, and maybe some other famous people. Whether they made it into the final version of the film or not is a question that is still waiting to be answered. Who will give it, and whether anyone will give it, time will tell...
"Cossacks": episode 2. Attack of the Clones.
Few people know that this picture has two options. The main one, one might say, classic version was completed, as already stated, in 1891. But, not yet finishing the first version, Repin in 1889 began work on the second, which he finished, according to some sources in 1893, according to others - in 1896. More precisely, he did not finish this work, but stopped; the second version of the painting remained unfinished.
It is now kept in the Kharkov Art Museum, where it came in 1935 from the Kharkov Historical Museum, to which, in turn, it was presented by the Tretyakov Gallery in 1932. This canvas is somewhat smaller in size than the original version, and is, so to speak, a behind-the-scenes copy. Kharkov residents, of course, are proud of “their” “Cossacks,” but in my opinion, the clone still loses to the original.
Although, it must be said, the main version of the picture was considered by many to be very sharp criticism. Repin was criticized for the “historical unreliability” of the picture: mainly the boy filling the cradles of the Cossacks, whom Ilya Efimovich placed in the lower left corner of the picture (by the way, he painted it from his young son Yuri), and the author also received the first number for the “white scroll", which turned its back to the audience and took up the entire right side paintings. The artist removed the boy, throwing in his place some colorful kuntush (like this: he sacrificed his son for the sake of historical authenticity!). As for the “white scroll,” it remained in its place as a silent monument to the author’s stubbornness.
Well, the fate of the main version of the picture turned out happily. After a resounding success at several exhibitions in Russia and abroad (Chicago, Budapest, Munich, Stockholm), the painting was bought by the sovereign himself, Emperor Alexander III, in 1892. The artist was happy! Still would! After all, the august person paid for her neither more nor less than 35,000 full royal rubles. According to unverified information, when this transaction was completed, Ilya Efimovich’s patronage was none other than Mikhail Ivanovich Dragomirov (which, in general, is not surprising, given the open Ukrainophile sentiments of the Governor-General). The painting remained in the royal collection until 1917, and then, after a couple of revolutions and requisitions, it ended up in the collection of the St. Petersburg Russian Museum, where it remains to this day.
Ab ovo again.
Where did it all start? To begin with, a historical document was found. More precisely, what was found, of course, was not the document itself, but a copy of it made in the 18th century. It fell into the hands of our famous fellow countryman, ethnographer Yakov Pavlovich Novitsky, from some unknown lover of Ukrainian antiquity. Novitsky, in a friendly manner, handed over the found copy to his friend Yavornitsky, and he once read it as a curiosity to his guests, among whom was, in particular, I.E. Repin. Well, then the artist’s inspiration and the ardent complicity of D.I. Yavornitsky did their good deed.
However, the famous answer itself is unlikely to have ever left the Sich as part of a diplomatic mail, and even more so was unlikely to fall into the hands of the Turkish Sultan. Most likely, the Cossacks, having had plenty of fun and sublimated, so to speak, their creativity in the original epistolary-diplomatic genre, left this letter in the archive along with the rest of the papers. And they preferred to give their answers not with a pen, but with a saber and a musket.
In history class, we all studied the fact of how the Cossacks wrote a letter to the Turkish Sultan. But not everyone knows what exactly was written in the letter...
The famous picture of how the Zaporozhye Cossacks wrote a response to the Turkish Sultan. (located in the state historical museum city of Dnepropetrovsk)
Text with translation into Russian:
The letter to which they wrote a response:
PROPOSAL OF MAHOMET IV.
I, Sultan, son of Muhammad, brother of the Sun and Moon, grandson and vicegerent of God, owner of the kingdoms of Macedon, Babylon, Jerusalem, Great and Lesser Egypt, king over kings, ruler over rulers, extraordinary knight, invincible warrior, persistent guardian of the Holy Sepulcher, the trustee of God himself, the hope and consolation of Muslims, the confusion and great protector of Christians - I command you, the Zaporozhye Cossacks, to surrender to me voluntarily without any resistance and not to make me worry with your attacks.”
Sultan of Turkey Mohammed IV
Well, actually the answer is:
RESPONSE OF THE ZAPOROZHIAN PEOPLE TO MAHOMET IV.
“Zaporozhye Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan! You, Sultan, the Turkish devil, the damned devil’s brother and comrade, Lutseper’s own secretary. What kind of a knight are you if you can’t kill a hedgehog with your bare ass. The devil is being wiped out, and yours is being devoured. You will not, you son of a bitch, the son of Christians, we will not be afraid of your battle, we will fight for you with earth and water, we will destroy your mother. You are the cook of Babylon, the Macedonian charioteer, the Jerusalem bravirnik, the Alexandrian goatman, the pig of Great and Lesser Egypt, the Armenian villain, the Tatar sagaydak, the Kamenets kat, every retinue and pidsvitu has a blazen, the gaspid himself is the grandson and our x$y hook. You are a pig's face, a mare's ass, a sacristan's dog, an unchristened forehead, motherfucker. That’s what the Cossacks said to you, poor fellow. You will not feed Christian pigs. Now it’s over, because the date is not known and the calendar is not possible, a month is for the sky, a year is for the prince, and such a day is ours, like yours, for this kiss us on the ass!
Signed: Koshevoy ataman Ivan Sirko For all the Zaporozhian kosh"
Russian-Ukrainian dictionary
Lucefeather - Lucifer (devil).
Knight - knight.
The ass is the back part of the body.
Hedgehog - hedgehog.
If you hit it, you will kill it.
Vysirae - empties the stomach.
Mats - to have.
We are afraid - we are afraid.
The cook is a mediocre cook.
Kolesnik is a talker.
Bravirnik is a braggart.
Kozolup is a castrated goat.
Pigman is a pig herder.
A villain is a villain.
Sagaidak is a steppe animal.
Kat is an executioner.
Blazen is an asshole.
Gaspide is a harmful snake.
The Riznitska dog is a biting dog.
Plyugavche - shabby, worthless.
Kosh is a military unit.
There is hardly anyone who does not know the famous painting by Ilya Efimovich Repin, which tells about how the Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan. The picture is familiar to everyone from childhood. This is one of the most replicated works of classical Russian painting. And one of the peaks in the work of the great Russian artist. The idea of creating a painting suddenly came to Repin when, among his friends, he read the text of this famous letter. Those present say that Repin grabbed a pencil and immediately general outline sketched a scene in which the Cossacks gathered at a campsite 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.
Episode from seventeenth century history
The event depicted by Repin in the painting of the Cossacks writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan took place in real story. We see only how the great Russian painter interpreted this scene. Various options historical document, which the characters in Repin’s painting are passionately working on, can be found and read. They are written very expressively and boldly. This is an open challenge to a obviously stronger enemy, who had the reckless stupidity to offer freedom-loving people their feudal patronage. The Cossacks responded to the powerful monarch in such a way that this insult could only be washed away with blood. People fully understand the value of their joke. This is what the picture is about. The letter from the Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan will be completed and sent to the addressee. And the Cossacks will go their own way without waiting for an answer. They are not interested in him. They free people and they do not need the patronage of a foreign monarch.
About how Repin's painting "Cossacks writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan" was created
In order for us to see this textbook work, the author had to do titanic work. Creative method Repin did not recognize any other approaches other than working with nature. He specially went to Zaporozhye for full-scale sketches. IN the most complex picture there is not a single random element. When we see the Cossacks writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan, we somehow don’t even immediately realize the simple fact that before us, among other things, there are also 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 painting, were dissatisfied with its completion. They believe that the author spoiled a lot when he introduced 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 this was the artist’s decision; with this gray spot he decided to balance general composition. This completed more than ten years of work on the masterpiece. Subsequently it was acquired by the emperor
Repin's paintings served as models for the characters. real people. His friends, acquaintances, and sometimes just random people he meets.
For example, a tanned, mustachioed Cossack happily leaning away from the table was copied from the artist Yan Frantsevich Tsionglinsky , teacher of the drawing school of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, active participant in the St. Petersburg creative association "World of Art". By the way, he was born in Warsaw, and was a Pole (damned Poles) by nationality, however, he still kept company with the Cossacks.
And this handsome young man with noble features and a completely intelligent grin is the grandnephew of the famous Russian composer Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka . And Repin found a young man in St. Petersburg - in those days Glinka was a page-chamber. In the picture the young man represented the image of Andriy - youngest son Taras Bulba, who betrayed his father and homeland out of love for a beautiful Polish girl
But this huge Cossack wounded in the head is an Odessa artist Nikolay Dmitrievich Kuznetsov (Aka Mikola). Joker, strongman, academician of the Academy of Arts, professor, head of the battle painting class at the Academy. Kuznetsov made friends with all of Odessa, was the founder of the Association of South Russian Artists in Odessa and the Odessa Literary and Artistic Society. By the way, despite his Odessa origin and Russian surname, he was Greek by nationality.
Mikola Kuznetsov is the eldest son of Taras Bulba - Ostap. I imagined him a little differently... but Repin saw him like this...
Well, opposite his sons, Taras himself froze. He is the easiest to recognize and he laughs from the heart...
Its prototype turned out to be a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory Alexander Ivanovich Rubets . Despite the fact that Alexander Ivanovich lived and worked in St. Petersburg, he was originally from Starodub and was a descendant of a Polish noble family. Rubets was a talented musician and teacher; he played many instruments beautifully, including the piano and bandura. More than ten thousand pupils passed through his hands, and his huge collection of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian folk songs (about six thousand!) is still waiting for its publication - if, of course, it could be found...
I can’t help but note that Repin based the image of the Poles’ hater Taras Bulba on a man of Polish origin...
A thin, tall, long-moustached Cossack peeks sadly from behind Rubets-Bulba. This is the soloist of the Mariinsky Theater, Fyodor Ignatievich Stravinsky . By the way, the father of the famous composer Igor Stravinsky. By the way, F.I. Stravinsky was also a good artist, and at one time he hesitated for a long time about where to enter: the conservatory or the Academy of Arts. The love of music won...
A toothless, wrinkled old man with a cradle was sketched by Repin from a random fellow traveler on the pier of the city of Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporozhye). History has not preserved his name, but his image was captured by the artist for many years of the painting’s existence.
Typical , cropped makitra (under the pot), and who has not yet had time to grow a mustache - an artist Porfiry Demyanovich Martynovich . He studied at the Academy of Arts and, by the way, mastered filigree graphics, but due to illness at the age of 25 he was forced to give up painting. However, the most interesting thing is that Repin had never seen him in his life. And he wrote the character “Cossacks” not from the living Martynovich, but from a plaster mask taken from the young artist’s face. And what’s even more funny is that the poor guy, when the mask was taken off him (alive!), grinned, and the grin remained on the mask. So Repin copied it.
And for this gloomy type with a twilight gaze, none other than Vasily Vasilievich Tarnovsky , Ukrainian collector and philanthropist, owner of the famous Kachanovka estate. By the way, he was also the leader of the nobility of the Borznyansky and Nezhinsky districts of the Chernigov province. In Kachanovka, Repin copied Cossack ammunition (and at the same time - Vasily Vasilyevich himself), which Tarnovsky had in heaps: his collection of antiquities of the Cossack era became the basis of the collection of the Chernigov Historical Museum.
Not only V.V. Tarnovsky was included in the picture, but also his coachman, Nikishka. Here he represents the image of the Cossack Golota. Repin, being delighted with the Nikishkins’ gap-toothed, one-eyed, drunkenness and laughter, managed to sketch him when he and Tarnovsky were crossing the Dnieper on a ferry.
Well, here is the ataman himself - the then Koshevoy of the Sich, Ivan Dmitrievich Sirko - one of the central figures of the picture. Historical character
The artist searched for a long time for a suitable image for him, finally settling on the general Mikhail Ivanovich Dragomirov , the then commander of the troops of the Kyiv Military District, later the Kiev Governor-General. A hero of the Russian-Turkish war, a joker, a merry fellow and a joker, M.I. Dragomirov was unusually popular among the people of Kiev. There were legends about him, the most famous of which is the classic story of a telegram sent personally to Emperor Alexander: "The third day we drink Your Majesty's health". In general, the general, like I.D. Sirko, also had experience in the original epistolary genre...
About Ivan Dmitrievich Sirko
But the character depicting a Tatar was, indeed, based on a Tatar student. But please note that not all of his facial features are Tatar. The beautiful white teeth were “borrowed” by the artist from the skull of a Cossack Cossack, found at excavations near the Sich....
Well, this vast bald spot and the three-story back of the head - they, not surprisingly, also have an “owner”. This is Georgy Petrovich Alekseev. The personality, I must say, is unique. Leader of the nobility of the Ekaterinoslav province, Chief Chamberlain of His Majesty's court, holder of almost all Russian orders, honorary citizen of the city of Ekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk), passionate numismatist, author of scientific works on Russian numismatics. There is a very anecdotal story about how he posed for Repin. He, seeing his unique back of the head and bald spot, was eager to capture them in the picture. However, Alekseev indignantly rejected the artist’s offer to pose for him in such an unsightly position. Here Yavornitsky came to Repin’s aid. Having invited Alekseev to look at his collection of coins, he quietly sat the artist in the back, and while the trusting numismatist admired the collection, the deft hand of the master depicted him from the right angle. Georgy Petrovich, having recognized himself already in the Tretyakov Gallery, was very offended by both, but there was nothing to do...
The half-naked Zaporozhye warrior (and also a gambler) is a friend of Repin and Yavornitsky, a public school teacher, Konstantin Dmitrievich Belonovsky. However, he was a gambler only in the plot of the picture, and not at all in life. By the way, precisely because this character should represent the image of not only a warrior, but also a gambling lover, he is depicted with a naked torso - during a serious game, the Cossacks took off their shirts so as not to hide the cards in their bosoms and sleeves.
And finally, another central character in the picture: the clerk, aka Dmitry Ivanovich Yavornitsky , himself. Well, Repin couldn’t help but depict his friend in the picture! After all, it was Yavornitsky who was the main inspirer and consultant of the artist. It was from the exhibits of Yavornitsky’s collection that Repin copied most of the ammunition, weapons and other Cossack paraphernalia. And, as already mentioned, Ilya Efimovich gave the first completed sketch of the painting to Dmitry Ivanovich. By the way, Repin did not immediately manage to squeeze the smile that is captured in the painting out of Yavornitsky. When Yavornitsky arrived at the artist’s studio to pose, he was very gloomy. But by the way, Repin found a magazine with cartoons, which he slipped to Yavornitsky. After looking at a few pages, he began to smile, and in this form he ended up in the final version of the picture.
Also, such personalities as Gilyarovsky, and Myasoedov, and Mamin-Sibiryak, and maybe some other famous people posed for Repin for the picture. Whether they made it into the final version of the film or not is a question that is still waiting to be answered.
This painting is the most famous a painting with the image of Zaporozhye Cossacks. Moreover, its fame is based not so much on historical accuracy as on its mood. Contemporaries called the painting by Ilya Repin Cossacks writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan, written in 1880, an atlas of laughter or a symphony of human laughter, because all the characters depicted in the picture laugh differently. The Russian painter, born in the city of Chuguev, Kharkov province, saw such diversity in life - the prototypes of the painted Cossacks were real people, Repin’s contemporaries, quite famous in the then Russian Empire.
The basis of the plan was another notable “character” of that period - a literary artifact called the Letter of the Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan. This text, dating from the 17th century, is considered by most historians to be a later falsification. It is supposedly the response of the Cossacks of the Zaporozhye Sich to a real written appeal to them by the Turkish Sultan Muhammad IV, who demanded to submit to him as “the ruler of the whole world and the viceroy of God on earth.”
During the time of Muhammad, the Cossacks were famous for their daring raids against the Ottoman Empire and did not heed the call. But most likely no letters were written to him. They did it later instead unknown authors, who created the “answer” to the Sultan. The document, sprinkled with flamboyant expressions addressed to the Turk a la “Usoy Svitu i pidsvitu Blazen”, “Gaspid Onuk himself” and “our fucking hook”, gained fame and prompted Repin to depict the moment of its “composition” by the Cossacks.
But if the Letter itself is easy to read, the artist’s work on the “film adaptation” was incredibly difficult, stretching over more than ten years. The result was two versions of the painting and many sketches.
Repin himself did not really like it when his Cossacks were reduced only to a panorama of folk fun - he put into the canvas high idea. “Our Zaporozhye delights me with this freedom, this rise of the knightly spirit,” the artist wrote. “When thousands of Slavs were taken into slavery by strong Muslims, when religion, honor and freedom were violated, this handful of daredevils not only protects all of Europe from eastern predators, but threatens even their then strong civilization and laughs heartily at their eastern arrogance.”
Characters
Repin was helped to depict the historical mission of the Cossacks in colors famous historians those years Nikolai Kostomarov and Dmitry Yavornitsky. The latter is the largest Ukrainian researcher of the Zaporozhye Cossacks and a fellow countryman of Repin, who suffered for his scientific research in the 80s of the last century.
“At that time, this topic [Zaporozhye Cossacks] was prohibited, since there were decrees banning everything national, including Ukrainian,” says Yana Tymoshenko, head of memorial house-museum Yavornitsky. The historian, in her words, has guidance Kharkov University, where he studied and then taught, suggested changing the topic of his research. Nevertheless, Yavornitsky refused, for which he was expelled from the university and banned from teaching “due to political unreliability.”
But every cloud has a silver lining: Yavornitsky went to St. Petersburg, the capital of the then Russian Empire, where more liberal views reigned in cultural circles. There, in 1886, he met Repin at the so-called “rokovinas,” or days of memory of Taras Shevchenko, which were regularly held in the northern capital.
Shortly before this, the artist’s chief historical consultant, Kostomarov, passed away. His place was taken by a Kharkov specialist in the Zaporozhye Sich. Yavornitsky also helped the artist in finding models for the painting. And Repin immortalized his new friend in central figure canvas - the Sich clerk, who transfers to paper the fruit of the collective creativity of the Cossacks.
The historian recalled that at first he refused to pose for Repin. But when he nevertheless dragged his friend, chilled in the St. Petersburg fog and therefore gloomy, into his workshop and threw him on the table in front of him humor magazine, Yavornitsky looked at some caricature and smiled.
“Stop, stop! - Repin exclaimed. “This is the look I need!” “Not even an hour had passed, and in the picture I was already sitting at the table - behind the clerk...”, Yavornitsky described those events.
The artist also found other prototypes for the laughing Cossacks among his friends or acquaintances - random or non-random. Many of them, ironically, had various funny stories associated with them.
So, for the Cossack, lounging at the table with his back to the viewer, Repin was looking for a man with an impressive nape and bald spot. The owner of these turned out to be Georgy Alekseev, chief chamberlain of the royal court, holder of almost all Russian orders and an honorary citizen of the city of Ekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk), who was passionate about numismatics.
To the artist’s offer to act as the back of the head, Alekseev responded with a categorical refusal: “What is this, to make fun of the future generation?! No!". However, the artist and his friends decided to defeat the stubborn man by cunning. Yavornitsky, who knew Alekseev well, lured him to Repin’s house to look at the collection of ancient coins. The painter captured him in this activity, quietly sitting behind him.
But the student with a makitra hairstyle to the left of the clerk was painted by the artist not even from a living person, but from his death mask. True, this was not an ordinary mask: the young artist of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Porfiry Martynovich, from whom this cast was made, was alive at that time. It’s just that, together with his classmates, he was fond of comic exercises - removing plaster masks from each other. Because of this, Martynovich’s “death” mask smiled, which is what attracted Repin to it.
Another student of the academy also appeared in the picture - a Tatar, whose name history has not preserved. But the white-toothed smile was “given” to him by the skull of a Cossack, found by Yavornitsky during archaeological excavations on the territory of the Zaporozhye Sich.
For a long time Repin selected a candidate for the role of the main character and inspirer of the Cossacks’ letter - the ataman Ivan Sirko, looming over the clerk and smiling devilishly. Sirko himself was a legendary personality - he fought fifty battles and emerged victorious from all of them. As a result, his prototype in the picture was an equally honored military figure - General Mikhail Dragomirov, hero of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. At the time of posing for Repin, he was the commander of the troops of the Kyiv Military District, and later the Kyiv Governor-General.
In Kyiv there were legends about Dragomirov's wit. So, one day, having forgotten to congratulate Tsar Alexander III on his name day on August 30, the general only remembered on September 1 and, in order to correct the mistake, sent the following telegram to the autocrat: “For the third day we drink to the health of Your Majesty. Dragomirov." To which the emperor, who also had a sense of humor, replied: “It’s time to finish. Alexander".
By the way, it was Alexander III who became the first buyer of Repin’s creation. After incredible success Cossacks at exhibitions in Russia, as well as in Munich, Stockholm, Budapest and Chicago, the emperor paid a fortune for the canvas - 35 thousand rubles. The painting remained in the Tsar's collection until the 1917 revolution, and then was placed in the St. Petersburg Russian Museum, where it remains to this day.
Rich nature
But what is kept today in the St. Petersburg museum is only part of the work that Repin carried out. After all, he made endless and countless changes to his canvas, which he created over a dozen years. From time to time, the artist found that the already depicted characters needed to be “touched a little with a brush,” as Yavornitsky points out in his memoirs. “If you could see all the metamorphoses that were happening here in both corners of the picture!..” Repin wrote to him. “What didn’t happen here!”
Often, for the characters in the canvas, the artist borrowed only individual features from the models. “He drew from me for his future painting“Cossacks for two whole hours,” the famous Russian writer Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak said in personal correspondence. “He needed to borrow my eyes for one, and for another - the eyelid, and for the third Cossack, he needed to fix his nose.”
The poet and military lawyer Alexander Zhirkevich, who, by the way, also posed for the Cossacks, once asked Repin when he expected to finish the work. “I have been painting my picture for several years now and, perhaps, I will devote a few more years to it, or it may happen that I will finish it in a month,” the artist answered. “Only one thing scares me: the possibility of death before the end of the Cossacks.”
To immerse himself in the atmosphere of the Zaporozhye Sich, Repin undertook long-distance expeditions. In 1880, in search of nature and historical materials, he, for example, made a voyage across Ukraine along the route that the historian Kostomarov compiled for the artist.
On such trips, the painter made sketches of folk types. “Very typical Chumaks were needed in the steppes of Little Russia. I wanted to write them, but they never agreed, neither for money nor for nothing... - said Repin. “Finally, I arrive at the fair in Chigirin and here I see a group of mowers - well done to well done, all lying on their stomachs waiting to be hired... I took this group for sketches.”
In the famous noble estate Kachanovka in Chernihiv region, which then belonged to the philanthropist and collector of antiquities Vasily Tarnovsky, Repin made sketches from exhibits of the Cossack era: the saber of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, as well as the personal belongings of Hetman Ivan Mazepa. At the same time, the master transferred onto the canvas the owner of the estate himself in the form of a serious Cossack in a tall black hat.
At Repin’s service was the entire collection of Yavornitsky, which he transported from Kharkov to St. Petersburg: weapons, zhupans, “sap’yantsi” (morocco boots), cradles-nose-warmers (short smoking pipes), obchiska cradles (the so-called comradely pipes with pipes up to two meters), as well as a decanter with vodka, dug up during an archaeological expedition in the grave of a Cossack.
“There were two such bottles,” says Tymoshenko from the Yavornitsky house-museum. - They were called quarts, each of them held 1.2 liters. According to Yavornitsky, they even opened one and tried it with archaeologists - and fell as if dead: it was so strong.”
The bottle flaunts on the table where Repin’s Cossacks sit. And its prototype, along with its perfectly preserved contents, lay for many years in the Ekaterinoslav Museum of History and Local Lore, of which Yavornitsky served as director at that time.
Some museum visitors, especially celebrities, sometimes asked him to try an ancient strong drink, but the director sacredly guarded the rarity, refusing even the last to the Russian Emperor Nicholas II.
And yet one day Yavornitsky parted with this vodka. When the Makhnovists captured the city in 1918 and tried to rob the museum funds, he, at the request of Nestor Makhno, gave the ataman a bottle in exchange for a safe conduct for his institution.
Second version
However, it was not only Ukrainian nature that served as the basis for Repin’s masterpiece. The same Yavornitsky advised the artist to go to Kuban and North Caucasus, where the descendants of the Zaporozhye Cossacks lived at that time.
Impressed by the trip in the late 1880s, Repin began to paint a second version of the painting. The main characters in it basically remained the same, but the coloring of the picture, according to experts, has changed - it has become more vibrant and emotional. Now this canvas is kept in the Kharkov Art Museum.
“Unlike the St. Petersburg version with its rather academic, balanced composition, the Kharkov film has a romantic sound. It was written in a more everyday, relaxed style,” explains Olga Denisenko, a museum specialist.
Initially, the “second” Cossacks were bought from Repin by the famous Russian philanthropist Pavel Tretyakov. From him Tretyakov Gallery the painting was transferred to Kharkov in 1933 during a parity exchange between museums in Ukraine and Russia.
Collective images
Character models famous painting Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan; Ilya Repin was served by his friends and acquaintances, many of whom are famous historical figures
1. Artist Ivan Tsionglinsky, teacher of the drawing school of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, member of the St. Petersburg creative association World of Art. Pole by nationality.
2. Odessa artist Nikolai Kuznetsov, academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, head of the battle painting class, founder of the Association of South Russian Artists in Odessa and the Odessa Literary and Artistic Society. Greek by nationality
3. A random companion of Ilya Repin, from whom the artist made a sketch on the pier of the city of Aleksandrovsk, present-day Zaporozhye.
4.Grand-nephew of the Russian composer Mikhail Glinka.
5. Georgy Alekseev, chief chamberlain (court official, manager of the staff and finances of the imperial court) under Alexandra III, honorary citizen of Yekaterinoslav, author of scientific works on Russian numismatics.
6. Vasily Tarnovsky, Ukrainian collector and philanthropist, owner famous estate Kachanovka (now - national historical and cultural reserve) in the Chernihiv region. Rarities from his collection of the Cossack era, including the saber of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnitsky, as well as the personal belongings of Hetman Ivan Mazepa, served as models for the painting, and later became the basis for the exhibition of the Chernigov Historical Museum.
7. Artist Porfiry Martynovich, student at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Repin wrote this character not from a living person, but from his plaster mask, taken from Martynovich during practical exercises in Academy.
8. Nikishka, coachman of Vasily Tarnovsky (who posed for character No. 5). According to Repin, the prototype of this figure is the Cossack Golota - main character Ukrainian folk epic Thought about the Cossack Golota.
9.Dmitry Yavornitsky, famous Ukrainian historian and ethnographer, researcher of the Zaporozhye Cossacks, Repin’s main consultant when painting.
10. Alexander Rubets, professor of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, originally from the city of Starodub, formerly part of Little Russia, and now the Bryansk province, a descendant of a Polish noble family. There is also a version that the famous Russian journalist and writer Vladimir Gilyarovsky, author of the book Moscow and Muscovites, posed for the character. Option 2 - General Dragomirov
11. A student of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, a Tatar by nationality, and for the character’s teeth the skull of a Cossack Cossack, found during archaeological excavations on the territory of the Zaporozhye Sich.
12. Konstantin Belonovsky, a friend of Repin, a teacher at a public school in Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk). Option 2 - Mark Kropivnitsky, Ukrainian playwright, friend of Repin
13. Fyodor Stravinsky, soloist of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, father of the famous composer Igor Stravinsky.
14. General Mikhail Dragomirov, hero of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, at the time of posing for Repin - commander of the troops of the Kyiv Military District, later - Kiev Governor-General. His character is a prototype famous Ivan Sirko, the invincible chieftain of the Zaporozhye Sich.
* The 2nd, 4th and 10th heroes of the picture were supposed to symbolize the images of Taras Bulba, as well as his sons Andriy and Ostap from Nikolai Gogol’s story Taras Bulba
