On August 5, 1844, Ilya Repin was born in a military settler's family in the Kharkov province. At the age of 28, he amazed the public with the painting "Burlaks on the Volga"; at 35, he created "Cossacks Writing a Letter to the Turkish Sultan"; and at 40, "Ivan the Terrible Killing His Son". At 58, Repin painted the majestic work "The Solemn Session of the State Council"; and at 80, the wise portrait of Ivan Pavlov. His paintings attracted viewers not only for their craftsmanship but also for their scandalous subjects, such as "Drunken Priest" or "Count Tolstoy Plowing the Land". There were tales of the fabulous sums Repin demanded for portraits, and jokes about how his paints darkened due to the addition of kerosene. Ilya Efimovich was an outstanding portraitist, and he portrayed the entire era, the people he knew and valued, who reciprocated in kind.

His attitude towards Moscow can be gleaned from letters to friends. In 1867, he wrote to Adrian Prachov: "Since yesterday, I have been breathing the Moscow air; today I spent the whole day walking around the city. Moscow reminds me of a miser's house, which has a lot of property inherited from wealthy ancestors. It is not averse to buying something new but prefers to make do with the old. Its things are in disarray, like in Plyushkin's study: grandfather's cups, lead bullets, silver plates, soldier's buttons, amber necklaces, a handle-less awl, a nail, and so on, all in one chest and under the bed. Better not to look there. Moscow is like this, especially in the Kremlin area, which seems to be the best place in the city." In 1877, Repin moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow and lived there for five productive years. This letter confirms Korney Chukovsky's words that Repin could have become an excellent writer if he had not devoted himself to painting. He described the city through details and color. In a letter to critic Vladimir Stasov dated May 29, 1872, Repin wrote about visiting the zoological and botanical gardens: "The public is the most diverse; next to elegantly dressed ladies and fops sat greasy serfs and colorful peasant women, remarkably picturesque." This "diversity" attracted him: unlike official St. Petersburg, where "there is no form of public interest", in Moscow "there is more folk life; here the people feel at home, and this feeling is transmitted to everyone, even to newcomers." However, by 1882, Repin grew tired of the Moscow routine and returned to St. Petersburg.

The Ilya Efimovich Repin Artistic-Memorial Museum in Chuguev (now in the Kharkov region) was opened in 1969 in his parents' house on Museum Street. As an adult, Repin often visited his parents in the 1870s and 1890s.