The story behind the painting
Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan
Repin depicts Ivan the Terrible holding his wounded son in a dark red interior. The gallery relates the scene to Karamzin's narrative; faces, hands and carpet bring the historical subject close.
- He's holding the son he has just struck.
- Look at his eyes. As if rage has just seen what it did.
- His son's face is calmer. Repin wanted it to show forgiveness.
- Love and violence, in the same arms.
- Blood at the temple. A father's hand can't hold it back.
- Look down. An embroidered boot, a rucked carpet. Seconds ago.
- A red wall. First shown in 1885, the painting was banned for three months.
- Imagine commanding almost anything, except the last second.
Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan is an 1885 painting by Ilya Repin of Tsar Ivan IV clutching his dying son moments after striking him in a fit of rage; it hangs in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.
Repin depicts Ivan IV cradling his wounded son after a violent confrontation. The circumstances of the prince’s death remain debated; the painting is an interpretation of the event, not an eyewitness record.
What does Repin depict?
Repin brings a father and wounded son together in a dark interior. The title names Ivan the Terrible and his son on 16 November 1581. The gallery explains that the painter followed Karamzin's historical narrative. (State Tretyakov Gallery)
The father's wide eyes stand above the dark beard and clothing. Light concentrates on the face while the surrounding colours remain deep. The gallery reads the depicted expression as remorse after the violence in Karamzin's account.
Why are Ivan’s eyes so striking?
The son's pale face tilts beside his father's. Their heads meet at different angles: one upright, one leaning sideways. Repin gathers this contrast into a small, brightly lit part of the larger dark interior.
An arm curves around the son's body. Hands and clothing join the two figures into one cluster, with diagonals running through the centre. The gesture gives the history scene the closeness of a bodily encounter.
Red marks appear beside the son's temple. Their colour interrupts the pale skin and links the close view to the violent story described by the gallery. Repin places this small area near the meeting of the two heads.
Below the figures, a blue-green boot carries a gold-coloured pattern. Its bright surface joins the carpet's varied decoration. Clothing and floor develop their own rhythms beneath the tightly grouped faces.
Red diamonds pattern one wall behind the figures. Their repeated angles contrast with the curves of the two bodies. The gallery emphasizes the textures of carpets, clothing and furnishings that build Repin's dense interior.
What does the painting mean?
Return to the two figures in the dark room. The gallery dates the painting to 1885, and Pavel Tretyakov acquired it from Repin that year. The linked heads and arms hold the composition around its small, brightly lit centre.
Why did Repin paint Ivan the Terrible and His Son?
According to Repin’s own recollection, quoted by the State Tretyakov Gallery, the idea came to him in Moscow in 1882, after a concert of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s music. Its trilogy of love, power and revenge gripped him so strongly that he wanted to paint something of equal force. His first pencil sketch of the scene dates from the same year. (State Tretyakov Gallery)
Repin also spoke of a streak of blood running through Russian history, by which he meant 1881: the assassination of Emperor Alexander II and the executions that followed. In early April 1881 he travelled to St Petersburg to witness the execution of the conspirators. The gallery notes that 1581, the year in the title, rhymes with 1881, but warns that no straight line can be drawn from one event to the other. (State Tretyakov Gallery)
The writer Vsevolod Garshin sat for the dying tsarevich: Repin wanted his face for an expression of forgiveness and the sorrow of leaving life. For Ivan he studied his friend, the painter Grigory Myasoyedov. The costumes were sewn at home to Repin’s own patterns, and a carpeted room in the family’s flat served as the tsar’s chamber. (State Tretyakov Gallery)
Why was the painting banned?
The painting was the centre of the 13th exhibition of the Peredvizhniki, or Wanderers, which opened in St Petersburg in 1885. Konstantin Pobedonostsev, chief procurator of the Holy Synod, wrote to Emperor Alexander III that he could not look at it without disgust. Pavel Tretyakov was then forbidden to show it in his gallery or circulate it, and from then on the Wanderers’ exhibitions were subject to censorship. The ban lasted three months, until the painter Alexey Bogolyubov, who was close to the court, had it lifted. (State Tretyakov Gallery)
What happened to the painting in 1913 and 2018?
On 16 January 1913 Abram Balashov, a 29-year-old Muscovite from an Old Believer family, slashed the canvas three times with a knife, across both faces and between them. The restorer Dmitry Bogoslovsky repaired the canvas, and the painter Igor Grabar, the gallery’s new trustee, planned with him to retouch the losses in watercolour under varnish. When Repin came in one Sunday and repainted them in oil himself, Grabar washed the fresh paint off before it set: by the 1910s, Repin’s palette had changed. (State Tretyakov Gallery)
On 25 May 2018, just before closing time, a 37-year-old visitor from Voronezh broke the protective glass with a barrier post and struck the canvas three times in the centre, on the figure of the tsarevich. According to the gallery, the blows missed the faces and hands of both figures, the finest parts and the hardest to restore. (State Tretyakov Gallery)
According to English Wikipedia, the attacker was imprisoned for two and a half years, and after extensive restoration the painting went back on display on 16 December 2024. (Wikipedia)
The details at a glance
Where is Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan?
State Tretyakov Gallery · Moscow
Sources and further reading
- Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan — State Tretyakov Gallery
- Museum commentary — State Tretyakov Gallery
- Artist biography: Ilya Repin (Wikipedia, English)
- Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan (Wikipedia, English)