BEFORE THE CONFESSION, 1879-1885 (oil on canvas)

1879-1885//Oil on canvas Loosely inspired by Nikolai Minski's poem The Last Confession, this painting features a condemned to death and a priest. The simple composition directs the gaze to the prisoner, who seems to both retreat from the priest and fix the cross held by the priest. Nothing makes it possible, in the expression of the face or in the attitude of the man, to know whether he is going to confess or not. In the political context of the time, we saw the representation of a nihilist revolutionary condemned to death, even if Repin's intentions were not as clear. In Soviet times, the painting received the title The Refusal of Confession, which distorted the author's thinking and influenced the reception of the work to the present day.