Ilya Repin. My “Grasshopper” (A Portrait of Nadezhda Repina, the Artist’s Daughter). 1884

My “Grasshopper” (A Portrait of Nadezhda Repina, the Artist’s Daughter)(Ilya Repin, 1884)

I have a sneaking suspicion that A Family Portrait by Mr Aleksandrov is a painting of his wife and children. Ergo, this painting by Mr Repin of his daughter Nadezhda (obviously she is about five or so, and the apple of her daddy’s eye!). She looks ready for any number of assorted mischiefs, to the vast amusement of her surviving parent. You see, Ilya Repin had lost his wife Vera to death a short while before, and his daughters were obviously his solace and consolation (that is, until they reached those “interesting” teenage years!) .