In his memoirs, Repin said he was inspired by the 1881 assassination of Tsar Alexander II, the music of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and the bullfighting he had witnessed in 1883.[1][2] In 1885, upon completion of the oil on canvas work, Repin sold it to Pavel Tretyakov, for display in his gallery.[1] It remains on display in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.[3]