Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks

A letter full of insults

According to a seventeenth-century legend, the Ottoman Sultan demanded that the Zaporozhian Cossacks submit to him. The Cossacks replied with a letter full of mockery and crude insults. Ilya Repin painted the moment they compose it, gathered around a table and roaring with laughter.

Repin worked on the painting from 1880 to 1891. It is a huge canvas, about two by three and a half metres, and belongs to the State Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg.

The scribe at the centre

At the table, a scribe with a quill grins as he writes down the words being shouted at him. Around him, faces lean in to add their own insults. A bald Cossack with a long topknot, seen from behind, sits close beside him.

Every kind of laughter

At the right, a large Cossack in a red coat holds his belly as he laughs, while the white-moustached ataman with a pipe beside him smirks. Repin wanted to show every kind of laughter, from quiet amusement to wild roaring.

In the foreground, a bare-backed Cossack leans over the table, his muscular shoulders painted in warm light. Repin studied the faces carefully, using friends, scholars and local people as models.

A figure turned away

At the far right, a tall Cossack in a white coat stands with his back to us. He frames the group and gives the crowded scene depth. Behind him, spears and banners rise above the camp.

Eleven years of research

Repin travelled to Ukraine to study costumes, weapons and faces, and collected objects for accuracy. While working on the main painting, he also began a second version, now in the Kharkiv Art Museum. The Russian Museum’s canvas was bought by Tsar Alexander III.

Questions about Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks

What story does it show?

The legendary insulting reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Ottoman Sultan.

Where is the original?

State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg.

How long did it take?

Repin worked on it from 1880 to 1891.

How large is it?

About 203 × 358 centimetres, oil on canvas.

Sources and image credit

• State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg

Public-domain reproduction of Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (1880 to 1891). Detail images are crops of the same historical painting; no reconstruction or upscaling.