Religious Procession in Kursk
When it was first exhibited, Religious Procession in Kursk Province, which showed a seething mass of people following an Icon of Our Lady of Kursk, being held by what appears to be a drunk man. This is an example of Repin’s social commentary. He wrote that the world he perceived around him disrupted him gave him no peace, and thus he had to capture that world on the canvas. The world that he captured on this canvas displayed his perception of the abuses of the church and the state. A leading art collector, Pavel Tretyakov, bought the painting for 10,000 roubles, asking that Repin replace the young maids in the picture with a beautiful young girl, to which Repin refused. The painting is now held in Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.
