For the 35-year-old artist 1879 was a successful year. Previously he had graduated from the Academy of Arts with Big Gold Medal and gone on a scholarship trip abroad. Upon his return to Russia, the artist decided to live with his family in Moscow, since his friends from the Academy, Vasily Polenov and Viktor Vasnetsov, also settled in the first capital. Life in Moscow also meant closer contacts with S.I. Mamontov, the talented entrepreneur and collector. The estate Abramtsevo near Moscow that belonged to Savva Ivanovich hospitably took in all his friends-artists. It was there where in the summer of 1879 this small, unpretentious art piece was painted. The canvas depicts Repin’s wife Vera Alexeyevna with children and their nanny going along a field boundary. The artist never positioned himself as a landscape painter, but in this picture genre painting and landscape merged seamlessly. The plein-air freshness and immediacy of work from life fill the small canvas with vigorous joy and lyricism.
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow