Ilya Repin (1844-1930)

The portrait of Vasia Tarnovskii is part of a series of studies that Repin worked on during his sojourn at the Kachanovka estate in Little Russia (modern-day Ukraine) in 1880. Repin's visit was prompted by his desire to study the collection of Cossack artifacts owned by the Tarnovskii family in preparation for his 1891 masterpiece Cossacks of Saporov are drafting a manifesto (State Russian Museum, St Petersburg). The Kachanovka estate had previously belonged to Petr Rumiantsev, who was governor of the Little Russian region under Catherine the Great.