The Mikhailovsky Palace

The Russian Museum owns Repin’s largest picture, Ceremonial Sitting of the State Council on 7 May 1901 Marking the Centenary of its Foundation (1903). It was specially ordered from Repin and hung in one of the halls of the Mariinsky Palace in St Petersburg. This group portrait is composed of more than eighty figures and demanded enormous preparatory work from Repin. He made studies of the majority of members of the State Council, also part of the museum’s collection.

All the members of the State Council and the State Chancellery attended in full-dress uniform. Tsar Nicholas II (1894–1917) and senior members of the Imperial family are flanked by their ministers. Repin painted the scene from behind the chairs on the right (next to the columns).

He rapidly sketched the original modello on a canvas on which the perspective of the hall had already been marked out, working from a previously selected point. The artist later turned this study into a large picture with the help of two students of the Imperial Academy of Arts — Boris Kustodiev and Ivan Kulikov. Every member of the State Council is depicted in natural and diverse poses, with strong physical resemblances.