LONDON.- MacDougall’s will present a magnificent painting by Ilya Repin as the top lot of its École de Paris online auction to be held on Drouot.com on 25 March. The Blind Bandura Player (estimate £ 250,000-300,000) is one of the most distinguished works by Repin that still remains in private hands. It was numerously exhibited since 1918 in Russia, Sweden and the US. In the exhibition of 1921 in New York, it was proudly illustrated on the title page of the catalogue, indicating the significance of this masterpiece.

Born in Chuhuiv, Ukraine, Repin was living on his estate in Kuokkola when Finland declared independence from Russia in 1917; the artist suddenly found himself in exile with no means. But the master’s genius overcame the political and economic hurdles. After Repin donated part of his collection to the Atemeum Museum in Helsinki, he managed to organise his first ever personal exhibition abroad. It was received extremely well, by art lovers and critics alike. More exhibitions in Sweden and the United States followed; his paintings sold well, allowing Repin to make a comfortable living as an artist.

Some would consider this painting of Repin’s late period quite dark, with glowing red powerfully highlighting the figure of a blind musician. Others would say that this work attests to the undeniable spirit of the artist and his faith in humanity and human values.

The art critic Edvard Richter, who knew Repin’s work well, said of the master’s paintings of that period: “Only when one has seen Repin’s celebrated Ivan the Terrible and His Son, Religious Procession in Kursk Province, They Did Not Expect Him and Zaporizhzhian Cossacks Writing a Letter to the Turkish Sultan in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, only then can one understand how sublimely skilled the artist can be in his mastery of form and in conveying the life and stirrings of the soul.”