This Painting Mocked an Entire Empire

Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks is a painting by Ukrainian-born Russian realist artist Ilya Repin. It is also known as Cossacks of Saporog Are Drafting a Manifesto and Cossacks are Writing a Letter to the Turkish Sultan. Repin began painting the canvas in 1880 and finished in 1891. His study drawings he made in stanitsa Pashkovskaya (today within Krasnodar), Yekaterinoslav (today Dnipro), and Kachanivka. He recorded the years of work along the lower edge of the canvas. Alexander III bought the painting for 35,000 rubles. Since then, the canvas has been exhibited in the State Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg with another version by Repin in the Kharkiv Art Museum in Kharkiv, Ukraine. The painting was featured in the 1980 BBC Two series 100 Great Paintings. #art #arthistory