Sadko (Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom)

A fantastical scene unfolds as multinational mermaid princesses, adorned in dazzling costumes, parade through the dim seabed.

This colossal painting, based on a traditional Russian epic poem, depicts the scene where the protagonist, the merchant Sadko, is commanded by the Sea King to choose a bride. A procession of lavishly adorned and enchanting beauties passes by one after another, but Sadko, standing at the far right of the canvas, pays them no heed, his gaze fixed on Chernavka, a simple Russian village girl at the very end of the line.

In fact, this work was painted by Ilya Repin while he was studying abroad in Paris, the glamorous capital of art. At that time, while exposed to cutting-edge Western culture and the dazzling expressions of Impressionism, he harbored intense homesickness and a sense of alienation from his life in a foreign land.