“Barge Haulers on the Volga”
For today, a masterpiece.
“Barge Haulers on the Volga” is an oil on canvas painting by the Ukrainian realism painter, Ilya Repin, from 1870 to 1873. This painting launched Repin’s career as an artist. He painted it just after completing art school. It was critically acclaimed and widely loved by all audiences who saw it. The painting was bought by Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, who toured it in exhibitions across Europe.
In this painting, Repin depicts eleven working class men as they labor and drag a barge along the Volga River. The men are burlaks, which is the job title of a person who hauls barges upstream. The work is backbreaking and was historically a job employed by both men and women. Although they remain stoic, the figures are weary, weathered, hot, and close to collapse from exhaustion.
This was an event that Repin witnessed in 1870 while on vacation along the Volga River. He made a series of sketches before painting the final version. The men depicted are the real and actual men that Repin met. He had to convince them to sit for his painting. Not an easy task at the time, as common folklore believed that any depictions made of someone would rob them of their soul.
Repin was well-aware of the social inequalities and different lifeways between the rich and poor. As an artist, he witnessed both. He empathized with the working class. He saw them as heroic versions of the common people, taking the roles they were born into with dignity and grace.
Soon after completing this painting, Repin joined the Peredvizhniki art movement, along with other great artists such as Ivan Shishkin and Arkhip Kuindzhi. It was the Russian counterpart to the realism movement happening in France at the same time. The Peredvizhniki artists wanted to protest the rigidity of the academic art school of thought and bring art back to the people.
“Barge Haulers on the Volga” is currently on display at The State Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
For more on Ilya Repin, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
