Repin Ilya Efimovich (1844-1930) –Russian painter, draughtsman of Ukrainian birth. Studied in the Petersburg Art Academy and simultaneously at Drawing school attached to the Encouragement Artists Society by I.N.Kramskoy. The academician of painting (1876). He is especially celebrated for his treatment of historical themes and contemporary socio-political issues, and for his many portraits, and is known as the foremost exponent of the Russian Realist style that developed in the late 19th century. During long life Repin constantly addressed to a portrait genre: he is a founder of "original our gallery of ancestors’’. His portraits, as a whole relatives on style to Perov and Kramskoy's works, are allocated new quality: Repin’s heroes as though enter dialogue with the spectator, showing the widespread representation about themselves.