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Ilya Repin, 'Woman with a Dagger', 1875



Although the eye within the canvas does not acknowledge the viewer, the presence of this figure is enough to command anyone's attention. The intensity of the woman's gaze fits into the pictorial scene of Sadko and the Underwater Kingdom for which this painting is a study. This complicated, Orientalising piece based on a folkloric tale was not one that Ilya Repin was truly satisfied with, but was well regarded by contemporaries. Even in this isolated study the viewer quickly realises a mythologising subject, with illusionistic hues of blue melting into the background that could reference the underwater scene of the final painting. Repin also used the figure for a ceramic design, highlighting his reuse of a figural type both in different contexts and media. The figure could equally be based on the famous Ukrainian beauty Sophia Dragomirova, with her noticeable thick eyebrows and dark hair. Repin painted Sophia's portrait, but the connection to this study is only speculative. 

Producing a dagger, this female figure could slot into any feminist canon of art history. With her dress opening at her heart, it emphasises the underlying capacity for violence this woman holds. She is seemingly dressed like a priestess and could easily connote a sorceress or an enchantress, such as Medea. Her caressing of the dagger furthers this connection. At this point in artistic Britain, for instance, such female figures were popularly rendered, for example Frederick Sandy's portrayal of Medea with her thick dark hair and white costume that recall this work of Repin. The artist did in fact travel to London, and witnessed exhibitions at the Royal Academy, so would have been familiar with these Western types. However in his painting, the female figure is no femme fatale but with her golden headdress she becomes a symbol of power. The quick, confident brushstrokes of the young Repin produce a shimmering effect to the gold, which is picked up in flecks of white highlights in the figure's costume. Her pose is one of commandment, of strength and superiority. Looking onwards to an unknown location, she is akin to Classicising sculptures of Roman emperors, and even prefigures propaganda of the Soviet era where the idea of thoughtfully looking into the distance became a gesture of intellect, power and domination. 

The actual features of the figure here are quite androgenous, with thick eyebrows, a strong jaw, down turned lips and a Acquiline nose. This links to the overtly masculine pose with its accompanying connotations of strength. Equally the quickness of brushstroke render the figure's hair in thick tendrils, almost recalling the snakes of Medusa's head. However this is where Repin's interest in the Orientalising genre comes to the surface. By subverting the traditional Western notions of beauty - light skin and light hair - perhaps this piece is a subtle comment on Repin's heritage. He was after all not a Russian artist, but was born and raised in Ukraine, learning the ways of icon painting there. Subsequently adopted as 'Russia's greatest realist' he was always careful to subtly reference his Ukrainian and folkloric roots. Repin recasts the Western notions of beauty, whilst seemingly conflating Orientalist modes with a distinct attitude to brushwork and facture, in this study for his wider artistic endeavours. 

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