Thelma with Ryepin's "Sadko" in the Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Репин was one of the most celebrated Russian painters of the 19th century. This painting of his ("Sadko in the Undersea Kingdom") is based on a folk epic poem about the Novgorod folk hero, Sadko. We loved to go to art galleries with Thelma from London to Berlin, Paris to Havana, Florence to Budapest, Vienna to Moscow and St. Petersburg, etc.