The artist is Repin
Academic sketches and paintings of Repin in the collection of the Russian Museum allow identifying the contradictory and original features of the initial stage of the formation of the artist as a historical painter. The sketch “Beatering of the first -born of the Egyptian” is a variant of the first academic program of the artist. For a successfully arranged multi -figure composition, close to the traditional classic constructions of the picturesque space, Repin received the first prize from the Academy of Arts (100 rubles). The work is almost completely (possibly only with the exception of an asymmetric light source in the left side of the image) met the academic requirements of creating a “general” in the picture.