Grief and Regret: An Analysis of Emotions In Repin’s Famous Painting

Grief and regret, two terrible things that is inescapable to human beings. We all could experience these emotions from the minute things to the largest thing. For example: you regret not going to the mall. You grief for a family of birds whose chick died. That’s the little things that intertwine with grief and regret.

However, the most pure grief and regret humankind have ever seen is in death. It doesn’t matter which party should be pitied. What matter is both parties, the dead and the living, experience grief and regret.

The dead may regret not telling their loved ones some last words, the living also regret not doing quickly to prevent the unpreventable: demise.

The living grieves for the lost of their loved ones, the dead griefs for the one they left. It may sound stupid, but those who passed grief, asking themselves why they have to leave.

As mentioned in the title, I will analyze Repin’s painting which represents both grief and regret. At first glance, viewers and art lovers immediately know the feelings and emotions that the artist tries to implement.

In this painting, I’m going to break it down to points.

I’m going to format it in bullet points, to make it easier to read.

1. Emotions: In this painting, we can see that it is a historical genre. As the title says, the subject in this painting is Ivan the Terrible, and his son, Ivan Ivanovich. Ivan the Terrible was the grand prince of Moscow, who ruled from 1547–1584. Viewers might be confused on what was going on in the painting. Long story short, Ivan the Terrible was lashing out to his son because of a disagreement. It caused Ivan to accidentally swung his staff (crane) to his son’s head, which caused him to bleed quite badly, resulting in his son’s demise. Ivan the Terrible was holding his son’s body in a sense of regret, whilst Ivan Jr. seems to be forgiving and comfortable dying in his father’s arm. The fear in Ivan’s eyes tells us that he didn’t mean it. Ivan Jr. body language also tells us that he is fragile, his eyes symbolize the preparation of demise.
2. Objects: We also can see the mess around them. The thrown chair, and the folded carpet makes the suggestion that they were fighting over disagreement much stronger.
3. Feelings: Overall, we can see that theres tension between the observer and the painting. It radiates melancholic energy. You can feel the grief and regret in Ivan’s eye.
4. Intentions: Repin created this painting in the late 19th century, decades after this tragedy took place. Articles said that Repin was inspired by the assassination of Emperor Alexander II’s. Gory paintings were a thing back then. He witnessed this assassination, and when he got back, he immediately painted ‘Ivan the Terrible and His son.’ For intentions, in my personal opinion, was to show the death and misfortunes in europe back then.
5. What art movements? Because it was painted in the late 19th century, the painting is regarded as realism by many. But, we can see that because the event of the painting itself, it is present that there are baroque elements in the painting. For example, the choice of colors tends to be more brown than Repin’s other paintings, and the light highlights Ivan and his son, which is a big element in baroque.

In conclusion, what is Repin trying to say to us through this painting? Even though I said his intentions were to symbolize death and misfortunes, I also strongly believe that he was trying to make us feel the pain, guilt, grief and regret Ivan felt. It appears that he tried to get us in the situation to feel pure emotions.

It is still visible that anger can lead to dramatic and dangerous issues in the modern day. Anger mostly made us unaware of what we had done, thus Repin has successfully told the story on how guilt and regret comes after realization.

My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted. — Franz Kafka