A sea the color of tears slowly surrenders to aqua. On the horizon, a distant rainstorm streaks darker and darker shades of blue beneath the firmament and canopy of huge clouds. Cargo ships and oil tankers eternally trudge along the sea on their way to Sevastopol or Istanbul and back again.  Suddenly the scene darkens, and the storm draws ever closer, and clouds descend to swallow a helpless cargo ship in the distance. For a moment, we are all the cargo ship, following our courses to be enveloped by our respective destinies.

Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom, Ilya Repin 1876 (Russian State Museum)

According to the Russian epic of the same name, Sadko, a gusli player, was playing his music on the shores of a lake. The Sea Tsar overheard him, and was so pleased by his playing, he offered to help him. The Sea Tsar told Sadko to make a certain bet with a fisherman. Of course, Sadko wins the bet, and as a result gains a fortune. Sadko becomes a wealthy sea merchant, yet he and his sailors neglect to keep their end of the bargain by thanking the Sea Tsar for his kindness. Furious at Sadko’s ungratitude, the Sea Tsar stops Sadko’s ships in the sea like flies in honey. After their attempts at appeasement with gold are unanswered, the sailors toss Sadko overboard, and the Sea Tsar whisks Sadko to his realm. There, Sadko plays the gusli for the Sea Tsar, and after a night with a sea maiden, Sadko awakens next to his wife.

In the painting, Sadko is relatively unimpressed by the fantastical rusalki or water sprites, who are fascinated by him, and instead holds and maintains his gaze with the lovely (though mere) mortal who waits for him on Russian shores. Repin’s imaginative rendering of this scene delights the water nymph in me.