Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan

In his memoirs, Repin said he was inspired to create the painting by the 1881 assassination of Tsar Alexander II, the music of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and the bullfighting he had witnessed in 1883.[1][2]

The work is a large canvas, 199.5 by 254 centimetres (78.5 in × 100.0 in).[7][8] The figures of Ivan and his son are depicted in a darkened room, with a blood-red carpet.[9] Ivan wears an austere black coat, contrasting with the more extravagant pink satin dressing gown and teal green boots worn by his son. The room is furnished with 17th century furniture and objects, which themselves reflect the violence that has been done: a chair is overturned; the rug is bunched up by the Tsarevich's feet.[10]

Although one version of the title of the painting is Ivan the Terrible Killing His Son, the work does not depict Ivan the Terrible delivering a fatal blow, but rather the Tsar holding the Tsarevich in his arms, his face a mask of horror and despair, attempting to staunch the flow of blood from his son's temple. It likely dawns on the mentally unstable monarch that, by killing his son, he has planted the seed of the Time of Troubles and the demise of his dynasty (as his only remaining heir was possibly mentally and intellectually disabled and could potentially be manipulated by powerful boyars).[11]

Differences between Repin's sketches and his final work indicate a distancing of the Tsar from the attack on the Tsarevich: in early versions, Ivan the Terrible is holding the sceptre used to deliver the blow, but the instrument is left out of the completed work.[7] The work is disturbing in the power of the emotions shown and in its "gory representation of violence".[12] Repin later said of the time when he painted it, that "A trail of blood ran through that year... Terrible scenes were in everybody's mind."[13]

The composition reflects two paintings by Rembrandt which Repin had studied and admired at the Hermitage, The Return of the Prodigal Son and David and Jonathan.[7]

Repin experimented with several models for his subjects – for Ivan, an old man found by the painter Pavel Chistyakov, then a craftsman, the composer Pavel Blaramberg, and finally the painter Grigoriy Myasoyedov; for the Tsarevich, the landscape painter Vladimir Menk and finally the writer Vsevolod Garshin.[7]

Repin showed the completed painting to friends in 1885, to a mixed reaction, some praising its accomplishment, and others challenging its historical accuracy. Repin sold it to his patron Pavel Tretyakov.[1] He painted a second version of the painting in 1909 for Stepan Ryabushinsky, which was given the title Infanticide (Сыноубийца); it is held by the Voronezh Art Museum.[14] In this version, Ivan IV is visibly crying as he hugs his son's lifeless body.

• 
  Small oil study for the painting, 22 x 36 cm (Tretyakov)
• 
  Second version, painted in 1909. Also called Infanticide

Repin's work has been compared to the Spanish school, and specifically to that of Jusepe de Ribera, for its "masterly regard for the dramatic effect" and its "primitive force and ferocity".[15]

The work appears briefly in the third episode of the 2019 HBO miniseries Chernobyl.

The events leading to the death of Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich in November 1581 remain a controversial topic in Russia, with some Russian nationalists disputing the historical accuracy of the usual account of the event.[5]

Accounts vary on the causes of the death, the subject of any argument (if there was one) and the precise dates of the events. According to the usual account, relations between Ivan and his son were strained. The Tsar had his son's first two wives, Eudoxia Saburova and Feodosiya Solovaya, sent away to convents. While they were at the Alexandrov Kremlin in November 1581, Ivan is said to have assaulted his son's third wife, Yelena Sheremeteva, for being inappropriately dressed. She was pregnant, and the beating caused a miscarriage.[16] The Tsarevich reprimanded his father, and the Tsar responded by accusing his son of inciting rebellion by challenging his father and advocating attempts to relieve the on-going Siege of Pskov.[17] Ivan struck his son with his sceptre, and also struck Boris Godunov when he tried to intervene. The Tsarevich fell to the floor bleeding heavily. Ivan was quickly remorseful, but his son died a few days later.[18]

Repin's piece was temporarily removed from public display at the Tretyakov Gallery when word spread that Tsar Alexander III found it offensive to represent the first Russian tsar (that is, the founder of the Tsardom of Russia) as a murderer.[1] The emperor himself forbade the exhibition of the painting until Alexey Bogolyubov petitioned him to change his mind.[19]

In 2013 an open letter was sent to the Russian culture ministry by Orthodox Christian activists. The letter alleged that the painting was offensive to Russians as it presented an untrue, distorted view of history.[1] The letter asked the Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky to remove it from public display.[20] The director of the Tretyakov Gallery, Irina Lebedeva, objected.[1]

• Vandalism of art