[ILYA REPINE] "The Zaporogue Cossacks" is one of the most famous works of Ilya Repin, particularly in Russia. He began this work in 1880, but only finished it eleven years later, in 1891. Repine who loved his subject very much was afraid to die before finishing it.This historical painting shows a group of Zaporogue Cossacks writing a provocative letter to the Ottoman Sultan Mohammed IV, to whom they refuse to pledge allegiance. Repine is having fun here making the great joviality of its reddish or toothless characters who laugh at the rudeness they lie on paper.Ilya Répine, The Zaporogue Cossacks, 1880-1891, Saint Petersburg, Russian State Museum, Saint Petersburg