Duel Ilya Repin (1844-1930)

Description of Ilya Repin’s Duel

The painting was painted in 1896. To date, the canvas is represented in the Moscow Tretyakov Gallery. Earlier there was a first version of the painting, which had the title "Pardon!" and in 1897 it was sold to an Italian woman in a private collection. There is also a sketch of the work, which is in one of the Moscow collections. One of Repin’s contemporaries tells of how the idea for the painting came about. He claimed that the work was presented to the viewer after one of the court officials told about a duel in which the perpetrator had been mortally wounded and shortly before his death asked forgiveness from his rival.

The painting depicts the moment after the shot, where the wounded man is surrounded by several seconds, supporting him by the arms and anxiously looking at the doctor, who has positioned himself nearby and is walking towards the dying man, while opposite, turning away from his rival, lights a cigarette of the winner of the duel.

After the release of Repin bombarded the mass of reviews of all kinds. Some felt that the artist did not finish the work, thus evoking a sense of indifference to what is happening within the episode, but there were others who claimed to have felt genuine emotion, looking at the facial expression of the dying, empathized with him. One critic, after viewing the painting, asked Repin, "Has the wounded man forgiven his murderer?" Such a reaction was unexpected for the artist, because the theme of the duel itself had a controversial nature. Many saw the work as a kind of protest against the duelists, favoring a peaceful resolution of conflict situations.

The work provoked a heated discussion even in the media, where it was praised and criticized at the same time, which for an artist is a sure sign of mastery.