Sam Fisher Stops to Admire Ilya Repin

As I've mentioned a few times around here, videogames are a favorite pastime. In some videogames, you may be in environments where there are paintings on the walls. In these situations, they are typically shrunken textures that barely get across the art itself, and most often they are quickie illustrations put together probably by some staff artist. As an illustrator, you can imagine I always pause to check these out.

Occasionally, you may notice a piece of art that actually exists being used in a game. Perhaps the digital artist liked the painting, perhaps it fit the theme, and so they stuck it in. For those who know where the paintings actually reside, seeing them for instance hanging in a mansion in Raccoon City or something always elicits a chuckle.

Recently, however, while playing Ubisoft's Splinter Cell (I know, how many years late?), towards the end you're at the presidential palace in the once-Russian state, now country, of Georgia. There I was, back to a wall, when with complete delight I noticed the "painting" hanging there:

Someone at Ubi has very good taste, or at least Google-skillz

There on the wall was a very cool painting I recognized as being by Russian painter Ilya Repin, entitled "Volga Barge Haulers." I first encountered the painting in the book on Orientalism I mentioned some time ago, but since most of his works still hang in Russia I haven't seen any in person.

Two things were impressive about this: first, the artist is actually Russian, though somewhat obscure, and second, the painting is still hanging in Russia in St. Petersburg (though not in Georgia's presidential palace), so its location was not altogether incongruous. The game credits one Yves Allaire as the texture artist, and if he was responsible, I shall say he has impeccable taste.

Lastly, the actual image (larger scan here) for you to enjoy, and to note how the proportions were squished to fit the frame. As well, what was used as texture seems to be the image from the same source perhaps as was used in the Orientalists book, which has the same decidedly golden cast to it, as opposed to the scan I'm presenting which obviously is much truer: