This first comprehensive survey of Ilya Repin's work to be overseen by a Western art historian features a wealth of previously unseen paintings, eye-catching and dramatic works that bring to life Russian society in the last years of the tsars. Repin, who lived from 1844 to 1930, was the finest and most celebrated painter of his generation, and an important influence in shaping a distinctly Russian school within nineteenth-century Realism. His often-controversial works addressed subjects including the hard lives of the peasants, the fates of revolutionary activists, loaded episodes of Russian history and some of the nation's greatest cultural figures, many of whom he counted as personal friends, including Tolstoy, Musorgsky and Gorky. His vibrant, colorful and topical canvases offer a fascinating panorama of the issues that were swirling in the minds of his contemporaries, and an unusual view of all strata of life during this crucial period of historical change.