In the context of this artwork, analyze the Background of the History.
Ilya Repin completed his seven years of study at the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1871, and was awarded the Grand Gold Medal of the academy for the painting "The Resurrection of the Daughter of Jairus", as well as the title of class artist of the first degree and the right to a fellowship trip abroad. From 1873 to 1876, the artist lived and worked in France.Repin returned from Paris to St. Petersburg in July 1876 and later went back to his hometown of Chuguev where he stayed until September 1877. He then returned to Moscow, where he would live and work for the next five years. Repin began working on the theme of procession in 1877. His main work on this theme, "Religious Procession in Kursk Governorate", was begun in 1880 in Moscow, and completed in 1883 in St. Petersburg, where the artist moved in September 1882. Repin wrote to art critic Vladimir Stasov in a letter dated 2 January 1881:
... I will move to St. Petersburg and begin the paintings I have long conceived from the most burning reality that surrounds us, understandable to us and exciting us more than all past events.
In the early 1880s, Repin was greatly influenced by the assassination of Emperor Alexander II by Pervomartovtsy, literally meaning those of March 1, as well as by the public execution of the assassins, which he attended. In the mid-late 1870s, Repin conceived the idea of creating a series of paintings on the theme of Narodism, a political movement of the Russian intelligentsia in the 1870s. The first of the "Narodniki" series is the painting Under Escort. On the Muddy Road (Под конвоем. По грязной дороге; 1876), followed by Arrest of a Propagandist (Арест пропагандиста; 1880–1889), Before Confession (Перед исповедью; 1879–1885) and Meeting (Сходка; 1883).The 11th travelling exhibition, which featured Repin's Religious Procession in the Kursk Province and several other works, opened in St. Petersburg in March 1883. Ilya Repin and Vladimir Stasov travelled to Europe in the second half of May of that year, visiting Berlin, Dresden, Munich, Paris, Madrid, Venice, and several cities in the Netherlands. In early June, Repin returned to St. Petersburg, and later settled in the dacha village of Martyshkino near Oranienbaum.
France Chuguev Russian Moscow Procession Vladimir Stasov dacha Oranienbaum Religious Procession in Kursk Governorate Emperor Alexander II Pervomartovtsy assassination procession Martyshkino Imperial Academy of Arts Paris Ilya Repin travelling exhibition Narodism St. Petersburg Russia