In 1883, I. E. Repin and his friend, art and music critic Vladimir Vasilyevich Stasov, went to Paris and then to Dresden. There in the room of the Dresden Hotel Repin wrote a magnificent portrait of Stasov.
As I. Repin recalls, “We were free, but I have long wanted to write Vladimir Vasilyevich. He generously agreed to pose and these 2 days with incredible patience, kindly and cheerfully sat for 5 hours a day, and maybe more.”
A funny case is connected with the portrait. On the 3rd day, in the morning, in the room to Repinzashel, the hotel servant. The unfinished picture was in an armchair, the same one where Stasov was posing posing. The servant greeted Repin, and then unexpectedly with a portrait. From that moment on, Repin considered the portrait complete and no longer complemented it. However, the portrait would not have seemed so alive if it had not expressed an internal similarity with the pose.
Vladimir Stasov, Russian art and music critic, art historian, archaeologist. One of the greatest figures of the Russian democratic culture of the 19th century. Honorary member of the Academy of Sciences. He came from a talented family, which nominated a number of prominent figures in the field of culture and social and political life. He received excellent homework, completed his education after graduating from the School of Law, Serving in the Department of the Senate, then in the Ministry of Justice, his main business was studying art and cooperation in the largest Russian. journals “Domestic Notes”, “Sovremennik”, “Vestnik Evropy”, “Library for Reading”, etc., where he published music and art articles, made reviews of French, German, English literature.
In 1851 – 1854 he served as secretary to A. N. Demidov and went with him to San Donato under Florence, where he seriously studied music, architecture, painting. Returning to St. Petersburg, he worked in the Public Library, where he compiled a catalog of publications relating to Russia – “Rossika”; on the instructions of M. A. Korf, he wrote a number of historical works for the reading of Alexander II. An encyclopedic educated person, Stasov wrote articles on the history of art, culture, archeology, folklore.
He supported the young artists of the Association of Traveling Exhibitions, the composers of the Mighty Handful, becoming the first in Russian history. culture by a professional art and music critic who had a tremendous impact on the development of realistic and democratic trends in Russian art. In 1900, he was elected an honorary academician of the Academy of Sciences.
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