MODEST MUSSORGSKY, 1881 (oil on canvas)

1881//Oil on canvas Répine intensely admired the work of Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881). In return, the musician valued his painting a lot. In February 1881, the painter learned of the critical condition of the composer, victim of attacks of depression aggravated by alcoholism. At the beginning of March, he went to Saint Petersburg and painted his portrait in four sessions at the Nikolaevsky military hospital, where Mussorgsky was treated. Here, Répine creates a singular and striking portrait: the model appears in her inner clothes in the privacy of her hospital room, shaggy, her face congested and reddened, sick, but profoundly present. Mussorgsky died a few days later, at the age of forty-two.